LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



( liai)..T.Jo\>('opyright No». 



•JNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




t 



• THE HISTORY 



-OF- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY 

MINNESOTA, 

From its First Settlement to the Close of the Year 1879. 



IN THEEE PAETS. 



FIRST PART. 
The Annals of the County. 

PART SECOND. 
Historical Sketches of the Several ToAvnships. 

PART THIRD. 

Historical Sketch of the Govei-nment of the County, 
and of the Several County Offices. 



THE STORY OF THE PIONEEIIS 



BY ^_ 



J. A. KIESXER, 

Attorney at Law. 



T- 






"Let me speak to the 3'et unknowing world, ^ 

How these things came about." Shakespeare. 



NINJ>!EAPOI,IS, ?IINN. 
HARRISON & SMITH, PRINTERS. 



•^•o 



COPYRIGHT J 896 
BY 

A. KIESTER. , A^j 



' '.-- 



■^A/v, ' 



DEDICATION. 

To the early settlers of Faribault County, Minnesota, who 
have conferred upon me many official positions of trust and 
honor, and favored me with their unwavering and earnest 
friendship, during many years, this book is inscribed by the 
writer as a slight token of his regard for them, and it is his 
earnest wish that they may be prosperous and happy, that 
their days may be long in the land, which their labors have 
done so much to build up, that their sons may be gifted and 
brave, and their daughters "as the polished corners of the 
temple," and that all, finally, may rise to a glorious immortality, 
in the great hereafter. 

J. A. KIESTER. 



PREFACE. 



This book is not a narrative of the lives and deeds of those 
■whom the world usually calls its heroes of great achievements, its 
Genuses, Statesmen, Warriors, Scholars and Princes of wealth. 

It is rather the unpretentious story of plain people, in the hum- 
ble walks of life, who have come to this fair portion of God's earth, 
from almost every land under the sun, to found homes for themselves 
and their children, and here fill the measure of their lives, and who, 
facing and conquering the hardships of frontier life, have in the 
course of years, taken up the lands, opened productive farms, insti- 
tuted civil government, erected numerous churches and school 
houses and factories, established newspapers, built railroads and 
telegraphs and thriving towns, and organized all useful associations, 
converting the wilderness into a rich and populous county, in which 
are found all the blessings of an enlightened. Christian civilization. 
And such deeds too are worthy of historic record. 

There are as many and as noble deeds of self-sacrifice, of unre- 
quited toil, of enduring fortitude, of triumph over difficulties, in 
short, of real heroism, in humble life, everywhere, which never 
reached the historian, or found a place on his pages, as any that 
have ever been recorded, "since Hesiod wrote, or Homer sang." 

The work was not written as a pecuniary speculation,'' but was 
undertaken many years ago, at the request of many of the early 
settlers of the county, and for the laudable purpose of preserving a 
correct account of the people, the times and events of the first set- 
tlement of the County. It was proper, too, that the record should 
be written by one of the old settlers. They have made and so shall 
one of their number write the history. 

The work was not done in haste, but the leisure hours of many 
years have been employed in collecting, arranging and digesting 
the materials, watching and noting the progress of events and in 
writing the record. 

The book embraces that portion of the history of the County — the 
first twenty-five years — which in the lapse of time was most liable to 
be lost or forgotten, yet which, in the course of years, becomes 
the most interesting. 

It may seem premature to even write, but more especially to pub- 
lish a history of so new a county as this, yet it is true that the first 
quarter of a century in the history of the County, now passed, seems 
in a great measure, to constitute a period, or epoch, complete in 
itself, covering as it does, the first settlement of the different parts 
of the County, and the origin of almost all its civil, religious, edu- 
cational and industrial institutions. 



PREFACE. 5 

It is, so to speak, the epoch of first things, now comiDleted. 

But, however little interest the book may now possess, the time 
will probably come as the years go by, and when the first settlers of 
the County shall have passed away, when its contents will acquire 
an interest and an importance, not now possibly comprehended or 
appreciated. In the future, questions will arise pertaining to the 
times and events covered by the history, which can be answered 
only by a reference to its pages. The book was written not for 
the present only, but also for the future, and it may contain some- 
thing which may be helpful to those who are to make the history of 
that great future. A writer of history has very truthfully said: 
"The important duty of preserving local history and recording the 
events that attend the origin of institutions and communities, is too 
often neglected until a period, when truth becomes blended with 
fable and the original materials, one by one, disappearing, leave the 
analysis of events involved in an impenetrable mist of conflicting 
traditions." 

Original and authentic sources of information have been referred 
to, in collecting the materials for the work, always preferring to 
rely on written or printed statements, rather than merely upon the 
uncertain memory of events long past. The official records of the 
County and of the several townships and villages, of religous and 
other societies, the files of local newspapers, standard histories of 
the State, official reports and the State archives have been carefully 
consulted. Where no record of events existed, reference was had 
to the actors, or eye-witnesses themselves, and no time, labor or 
expense has been spared to make every date and statement correct, 
yet in such a multitude of names and d^^tes, there are doubtless 
some errors, but if so, they are of minor importance. That which 
purports to be history is worthless as such, unless it be true. Do 
not hastily question the accuracy of the work. The events of the 
first year of this history were mainly obtained from Mr. M. Sailor, 
himself, the first settler of the County. 

Those of the second year were derived mainly from J. B. Wake- 
field, G. B. Kingsley, H. P. Constans, H. T. Stoddard, Andrew C. 
Dunn and others, who were the principal actors in the events of 
that time. Prom near the beginning of the third year, the writer 
himself, was personally present and noted events as they occurred. 
The writer had also a personal acquaintance with almost all the first 
settlers of the several townships and obtained the facts relating to 
their first settlement and other events, from them directly. 

The history was not written from any local standpoint, or out- 
look, and no local, or personal prejudices warp or color any of its 
statements, but it was written "With malice toward none, with 



6 PREFACE. 

charity for all" and for the whole County. Not wishing "To make 
or to mar any man's fortunes," the writer has on the one hand 
avoided the adulation of any one. and on the other, he has refrained 
from censuring the acts, or impugning the motives of individuals, 
or parties, even where the truth of history, in a few instances, 
seemed almost to demand severe criticism. There are some things, 
though true, and even of some importance, that had better sleep in 
oblivion. Let them rest. This book purporting to be a history and 
not a biographical repository, the brief personal and biographical 
notices given are of those only who were connected with the more 
important offices and events referred to in the history. No other 
rule of practical value could be adopted. Special notices, or bio- 
graphical sketches of many omitted in this volume, will be given in 
the next. 

The work is not a mere narrative of events and collection of 
biographies, but the writer has sought to weave into the record 
some observations, thoughts and suggestions, on various topics, con- 
nected with the history, which may be of value lo some, and it was 
the design and hope that the volume might contribute something to 
the information of at least some of its readers on certain special 
subjects and be worthy of perusal in the family circle around the 
hearthstone, in the quieter and better hours of life, and be left as a 
brief memorial by our old settlers, to their children, of 4heir lives 
and labors here. 

Many subjects referred to in this work might have been treated 
more elaborately, but a low. small voice continually whispered con- 
dense, condense. 

The work of writing the history was not little, nor without 
difiSculties, and few can appreciate them who have not attempted 
such work. The book makes no pretention to literary merit, ele- 
gance of style or completness of arrangement, and possesses but a 
local interest It is hoped that it may be received and treated in the 
same candid and kindly spirit in which it was written. 

The writer is under obligations to many friends for their kind- 
ness and courtesy in furnishing him with information required in 
writing the history, and who have, from time to time, inquireil of the 
progress being made, and now to each and all of them, he tenders his 
sincerest acknowledgments. But the writer desires especially, to 
express here, the acknowledgment of his many obligations to the 
Hon. S. P. Child, for his valuable assistance in the publication of 
of this work, and to say that whatever may be the merits, or de- 
merits of the book. Mr. Child is in no way responsible for any of its 
contents. 

J. A. KIESTER. 

Blue Earth City. Minn.. August. 1696. 



IXTEODrCTIOX. 



SECTION FmST. 

A BRIEF SKETCH OF MFN'XESOTA. 

L'EioUe du Xord. 



The district of country known as Minnesota, of which Faribault 
county is a part, lies betweem 43-30' and 49^ north latitude and 
extends in part fromf9-39' to 97^5' -svest longitude. It is baunied 
on the Xorth by the British Possessions, on the East by Lake Su- 
jjerior and the State of Wisconsin, on the South by the State of 
Iowa and on the West by Dakota Territory. 

Minnesota originjilly. however, extended westward to the Mis- 
souri river and was once -The land of the Dakotas," who were the 
aboriginal inhabitants, and here lived and loved and warred and died, 
through centuries, the number of which no one will ever know. 

Minnesota derives its name from the principal river within its 
boundaries — the Minnesota. The compound word Minnesota is 
composed of the Indian words Minne — meaning water and So-tah — 
meaning sky-tinted — the land of sky-tinted waters, because its 
numerous lakes and streams reflect, in their crystal depths, the 
clouds and blue of the over-arching skies. 

Minnesota contains S3, 53 1 square miles, equal to 5o.4o9,>40 
acres of land, an area greater than all Xew England, and almost 
equal to the combined areas of the gres: s:a:'?s of Pennsylvania 
and Ohio. 

The geographical posiiion of the Sraie :s h.gn.y favorab.e — :: :s 
the central portion of the Continent of Xorth America, lying mid- 
way between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans on the east and west. 
and Hudson's Bay on the north and the Gulf of Mexico on the 
south. 

It is also in a large sense, the summit of the east half of the 
Continent — a high undulating plateau, table land or plain, having 
an average elevation of nearly one thousand feet above the level of 
the sea. and forms the water shed of the three great river systems 



8 lllSTOllY OF 

of a large part of North America — that of the Mississippi which 
flows southward to the Gulf of Mexico; that of the St Lawrence, 
which connected with the Northern lakes has an easterly direction 
to the Atlantic Ocean and that of the Red River of the North, which 
Hows northerly to Lalce Wiunepeg, which has its outlet in Hudson's 
Bay. 

A glance at the map of this grand territory — Minnesota — 
exhibits it lined all over by numerous streams of water, which 
furnish the most abundant water power, and six of which are. or 
were formerly, navigable, and the whole surface is dotted over with 
lakes, nearly ten thousand in number and ranging in size from 
fifty rods to thirty miles in diameter, and on its eastern bbrder lies 
the largest lake of the world — Superior. 

Few regions of the world possess more beautiful and romantic 
scenery than Minnesota, especially that along the Mississippi 
river. 

The state has been appropriately named ••The Star of the 
North " and "The Empire State of the New Noi-thwest." It may 
also be as properly called The Mother of Rivers, The Land of the 
Lakes or The Summit State. 

The soil of the State, speaking generally, is of great fertility. 
It is a dark, calcarious, sandy loam and abounds in mineral 
elements and the rich organic ingredients, resulting from the de- 
composition of the vegetable growth of untold ages and is from one 
to four feet in depth. It is a valleij soil. It has been determined by 
climatologists, that "the cultivated plants yield the greatest pro- 
ducts near the northermost limits at which they will grow." and this 
law finds abundant illustration in the amount and perfection of the 
products of Minnesota. 

The climate of Minnesota has often been unjustly disparaged. 
But a word will be said here in I'eference to this sublect, it being 
more fully treated elsewhere. It is suflicient to say here, that Min- 
nesota possesses a modified mountain climate, the seasons more 
or less distinctly marked, follow each other in regular suc- 
cession. The atmosphere is pure, dry and invigorating and the 
climate is adapted to the growth of all the grains and the leading 
fruits of the middle states in their pro))er season, and the general 
heathfulness of the entire state, as the statistics fully show, is not 
surpassed by any other country on ihe globe. This is enough. 

Though Minnesota is called a prairie state, yet about one third 
of its area is covered with native timber. Its pine forests in the 
northern part of the State are among the most extensive and valu- 
able in the northwest and furnish an immense lumber trade. The 
"Big Woods" tract, lying on both sides of the Minnesota river and 
about one hundred miles long and of an average width of forty miles. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 9 

is the largest body of hardwood timber, of all varieties, between the 
Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Elsewhere timber is found in 
groves, bordering the streams and lakes, throughout the State. 

Among the other natural resources of the State mention may be 
made of her inexhaustible raw material of iron, copper, slate, gran- 
ite, clay, limestone, superior building stone, salt springs and glass 
sand. The statement is eminently truthful that Minnesota contains 
within itself, all the elemental requisites of a very rich and very 
independent state. 

It is claimed that Minnesota was discovered in the year 1680 by 
Louis Hennepin, a Francescan priest and his companions Picard du 
Gay and Michael Ako. In the spring of that year, coming from 
Canada by way of the lakes and the Illinois river, they ascended the 
Mississippi on an exploring expedition and were captured by the 
Indians and carried far north and in their travels discovered the 
Falls of St. Anthony, which Father Hennepin named. After wan- 
dering about with the Indians for three months they in June, on 
their return, met Sieur du Luth, a French explorer, and several 
soldiers under his command. In the fall they all returned to Canada. 
Two centuries later (1880). the second centennial of these events was 
celebrated in the splendid city of Minneapolis, with appropriate 
ceremonies and eloquent addresses. 

It has also been claimed that Sieur du Luth, rather than Father 
Hennepin and his companions, was the real discoverer of Minne- 
sota. But it is quite certain that long before any of these persons 
visited this country, two French fur traders, about 1654-9, visited 
Minnesota and spent some two years in this region. 

In 1689 Nicholas Perrot, a man of much influence with the Indian 
tribes, was made commandant of this region of country and under a 
commission from the governor of Canada, took formal possession of 
the country, in the name and on behalf of the King of France. Louis 
the XIV, Le Grand Monarque then held the imperial scepter of 
France. 

In 1700 M. Le Sueur, who had accompanied Perrot and had sub- 
sequently gone to France, returned with a company of miners and 
ascended the Minnesota river, as far as the mouth of the Blue 
Earth River, near which he built a fort and spent the winter. In 
1727 a company of soldiers were sent in from Canada, accompanied 
by a number of traders and missionaries. They built a fort on the 
west shore of Lake Pepin. 

The history of Minnesota from 1700, for more than half a cen- 
tury, is but a broken narrative of the adventures of explorers and 
traders, and of the toils and suffering of devoted missionaries in 
their efforts to plant the standard of the cross and proclaim to the sav- 
age nations the blessed gospel of Jesus the Christ. On the eighth 



10 HISTORY OF 

day of September, 17G3, the French surrendered their posts in Can- 
ada and by the treaty of Versailles, in 1763, ceded the district of 
country embracing: Wisconsin and that part of Minnesota lying east 
of the Mississippi to England and west of it to Spain. 

In 17G(3 Jonathan Carver, exploring the northwest, entered the 
Mississippi by way of the Wisconsin river and proceeded as far north 
as the "curling waters" of St. Anthony's Palls. He also ascended 
the Minnesota River a considerable distance and spent several 
months with the Indians, e.xploring the country. He subsequently 
went to England and published an account of his adventures. 

By the treaty of peace at the close of the War of the Revolution 
(1783) England ceded her claims to all the territory south of the 
present British Possessions and east of the Mississippi, to the 
United States. This cession included all that part of Minnesota 
east of the Mississippi river. George the Third was then King of 
England and our Continental Congress, which had given the king 
so much trouble, represented the sovereignty of the United States 
of America. The constitution had not then been adopted, nor had the 
first president been elected. 

The Province of Louisiana, which included, with much other 
territory, that portion of Minnesota which lies west of the Missis- 
sippi obtained by Spain in 1763 from France, was retroceded by 
that power to France in 1800. During the Spanish supremacy, 
Charles the Third, a wise prince, and Charles the Fourth, an unwise 
one. sat upon the gorgeous throne of old Spain. 

The same territory was in the year 1803 sold by France to the 
United States, for fifteen millions of dollars and is known as the 
Louisiana pui-chase. During the above period of three years, the 
great Napoleon was the sovereign ruler of the larger portion of 
Minnesota and at the time of the purchase Thomas Jefferson was 
president of the United States. 

In 1805, General Z. M. Pike, an officer of the United States, 
explored this region and obtained from the Indians a grant of lands 
on which, in 1820, Fort Snelling was built. He proceeded as far 
north as Sandy and Leech lakes, where he found several forts oc- 
cupied by English fur traders. He also found the flag of old Eng- 
land bravel}' flying over these forts, which in the eye of our General 
was inimical to the sovereignty of the United States and he, there- 
fore, ordered these flags down and the Stars and Stripes set up, 
never to be lowered on this soil. 

It may here be observed that Minnesota has, in time been 
subject to Great Britain (in part). Spain. France and lastly to the 
dominion of the United States, four of the most enlightened and 
powerful nations that appear in the world's history. But more, 
the first occupants of the soil, the aboriginees, were among the 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 11 

most numerous, haughty and warlike of the Indian nations that 
held sway over the continent, at the advent of the white man. To 
all this we may add the words of Judge Plandreu, contained in a late 
address before the Historical Society : 

"Our state had rather a mixed origin. Its mothers were the 
Northwestern Territory and Louisiana. The first gave us what 
lies east of the Mississippi, and the last what we embrace west of 
that stream; and before we became Minnesota we were on the west 
side of the river, first Louisiana, then Missouri, then Michigan, 
then Wisconsin, then Iowa." 

On the east side of the Mississippi we were, first Northwest 
Territory, which belonged to Virginia and was ceded by that state 
to the United States; it was next Indiana, and next Wisconsin." 

During the war of 1812, the Indians in this region were gener- 
ally opposed to the United States, being incited to this enmity by the 
British fur traders of the Northwest, but after the peace of 1815, 
they submitted to the federal authority. • 

In the year 1812, Lord Selkirk, a Scotch nobleman, established 
a small colony, mainly of Scotchmen, near the British line on the 
Red River of the North, in British territory, known as the Selkirk 
Settlement. Some years later a number of Swiss immigrants set- 
tled in the Colony. The settlement was greatly persecuted by the 
employees of the Hudson Bay Pur Company, and met with many 
misfortunes by fire, flood, grasshoppers and failure of crops, when 
about 1827, a company of the Swiss left the Colony and located near 
the site of St. Paul, and became the pioneers of agriculture in 
Minnesota and its first white settlers, other than United States 
troops and Indian traders. 

The first Mill was erected in 1822, and in 1823 the first Steam- 
boat that ascended the Mississippi, arrived at Port Snelling, to the 
great astonishment of the natives, who thought it some horrible 
monster of the waters, having a voice like a demon, and on hearing 
which they scarnpered away and hid themselves 

In 1832 the first regular mail was brought to Port Saelling. 

By the treaty made in 1887. the Indians ceded all their 

lands east of the Mississippi to the United States. 

In 18'11 a Roman Catholic Chapel was built on the site of what is 
now the live and rapidly growing city of St. Paul, the Capital of the 
State, a city with a grand future. The Chapel was dedicated to St. 
Paul, and hence the name of the city, the site of which was pre- 
viously named "Pig's Eye." 

And now we have reached in our sketch the period of those 
important events, which in America are premonitory of the birth of 
a great State— the fading out of the era of savage occupancy and 
the rule of the strong and bloody hand and the dawn of the era in- 



12 UlSTOItY OF 

augurating the supremacy of law- civil government and enlightened 
progress. 

On the M day of March, 1H49. Con','ress passed a bill organizinfj 
the ■•Territory of Minnesota." the Territory extending as far west 
as the Missouri river. Hon. Alexander Ramsey, of Pennsylvania, 
was ajipointcd Governor by the President. Gen. Zach Taylor, and 
on the first day of .June of that year proclaimed the territorial gov- 
ernment organized with the following ofhcers: 
Governor, ALEX.\NDKR RAMSEY. 
Secretary, C. K. SMITH. 
Chief Justice. AARON GOODRICH. 
Associates. D. COOPER and B. B. MEEKER. 
Marshall, .1. L. TAYLOR. 
U. S. Attorney, H. L. MOSS. 

The inhabitants of the Territory then numbered 4.680. 

On the i3d day of September, following, the First Territorial 
Legislative Assembly met at St. Paul, -and among much other im- 
portant business transacted, created nine counties which were named 
as follows: Itaska. Wabasha. Dakota. Cass, Chisago, Ramsey, Pem- 
bina, Benton and Washington. 

By treaty in 1651. the Dakotas ceded to the United States all 
their lands in the Territory west of the Mississippi to the Sioux river 
and Lake Traverse, except a small tract on the upper Minnesota, 
kept as a Reservation. 

Immigration now began to pour into the Territory in a mighty 
stream, compared with which the first settlement of other states was 
but insignificant. Lands were taken up, farms opened, great high- 
ways established, water powers improved, towns and cities grew up 
as by magic, apparent prosperity was seen on every side, specu- 
lation in wild lands and town lots ran wild, fortunes were being 
made in a day, so to speak, and everything was progressing for 
some years, at high tide, when suddenly the great commercial 
revulsion of 1857 came and the bubble of land speculation burst. 
Then dawned the real, permanent prosperity of Minnesota. 

A Convention to frame a Constitution for the now proposed 
State, met at St. Paul in July, 1857, and drafted a Constitution, 
•which was submitted to the people of the Territory at a general 
election held in October, following, and was adopted. 

On the 11th day of May, 185S, the new state was admitted into 
the Union with its present boundaries, and Minnesota took its place 
in the great Union of States, as the thirtj- second state. 

When the great Rebellion broke out in 1861, our State was the 
first to respond to the call for troops to put down the rebellion, and 
the State furnished during the war 24,263 soldiers. This was a 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 13 

larger number of soldiers in proportion to population than that 
furnished by any other state, and no state of the loyal North made 
a more brilliant record during the war than Minnesota. 

In August, 1862, there occurred on the western frontiers of the 
State, an appalling massacre of settlers, by the Dakota or Sioux 
Indians — the most atrocious butchery and destruction ever known 
in the history of Indian warfare. Huadreds of men, women and 
children were killed, thousands were driven from their homss and 
millions of dollars worth of property was lost, wasted and 
destroyed. 

In 1863, the Sioux and Winnebago Indians were removed from 
the State by the general government, to localities on the Missouri 
river, and their old "reservations" here were subsequently thrown 
open to sale and settlement, and long since became the abode of 
large and prosperous agricultural communities. 

It is unnecessai-y to the purposes of this work to trace the his- 
tory further of this great State. It may be remarked, however, that 
from the beginning of the immigration and settlement of the State 
in 1851, the growth of the State in population and permanent im- 
provements, notwithstanding fioancial revulsions, the great rebel- 
lion, the Indian massacre and grasshopper invasions, for several 
years, has been exceedingly rapid and probably without a parallel, 
and attests to the vast natural advantages and x'esources of the State 
and the indomitable and progressive spirit of its people. 

Minnesotans are justly proud of their State and its wonderful 
development, and they look forward with confidence to a future, 
now not distant, when the State shall be one of the most populous 
and wealthy in the American Union. 

Here, said that far seeing statesman, Wm. H. Seward, in his 
great speech in St. Paul in 1860, "Here is the place — the cent- 
ral place, where the richest agricultural region of North America 
must pour out its tribute to the whole world." But he said more, 
hear the grand prophecy! "I now believe that the ultimate last 
seat of government on this great Continent, will be found some 
where within a circle or radius not vez'y far from the spot on which 
I now stand, at the head of navigation of the Mississippi river." 
Here is a splendid future foretold. Twenty years have passed 
away since the prophecy was uttered and the great statesman has 
been gathered to the fathers. In the meantime, what have we been 
doing? Let us take a brief retrospect. In this sketch we have 
been dealing with general facts, let figures now "be submitted to a 
candid world." They will show how broad, and deep, and strong the 
foundations of a gi'eat state have been laid, and how rapidly and 
amply the structure is being reared. 



14 



HfSTOIiY OF 



But thirty years have passed since the territorial government 
was organized and we had then a population of 4, 6^0, and in 1890, 
by the national census, 780,806. In 1850 the area of tilled land was 
1,900 acres, in 1880. 4.503.716. And the plow lay not idly in the 
furrows those years. 

Here is the exhibit of certain staple agricultural productions, 
in bushels: 





WHEAT 


OATS 


CORN 


1860 
1865 
1870 
1875 
1879 


5,101,432 

9,475,000 
n.2K3,12I 
:tO,()79.;iOO 
31,218,634 


2.912.857 

4,000,000 

10,588,689 

13.801,761 

20,667,933 


3,143,577 

6,092,230 
7,195,681 
12.939,900 



The following is the statement of the live stock. 

1879 

Horse-s 225,403 

Cattle 557,914 

She.'p 203,791 

Hogs :il6,9l3 

The wholesale trade is estimated at Forty Million dollars an- 
nually. 

MANUFACTURES. 

The following statistics are taken from the United States Census 

of 1880: 

There are 124 different manufacturing industries and 3,493 establishments. 

Capital empU.yed $31,000,000 

Average number of hands employed 21,247 

-Vmount of wages paid during the year $8,613,094 

Value of products $76,065,198 

Ten dilTerenl dassesof manufactures produced each, over $1,000,000 In value. 

Truly Minnesota is destined to be a great manufacturing state. 

The rapid increase in the wealth of the State, may be inferred 
from the following exhibit of the assessed valuation of taxable 
pi-operty: 

I860. $36,753,408 

1865 45,184,063 

1 870 87, 133,673 

1H75 218,855,743 

1,S79 242,430.4.39 

In 1857. congress made a large grant of lands in aid of a most 
magnificent railroad system. The first mile of road was not com- 
pleted until 1862. but in 1880. 3,099 miles had been built, penetrating, 
as any map of the State will show, to all parts of the State and one 
line of which, the Northern Pacific, was designed to reach the 
Pacific Ocean, and has already reached its far western terminus. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 15 

All the Christian denominations ai'e represented in Minnesota, 
and the clergy compare favorably with those of any country. Many 
of them are men of high culture and of great eloquence and 
efficiency. 

No other state in the Union has such a magnificent provision 
for common schools and free education. Two sections of land in 
every township in the State, are set apart for this purpose, the 
proceeds of the sales of which are from time to time invested in 
interest paying bonds, the interest on which and on deferred pay- 
ments on sales being applied to the support of common schools. 
The public school fund already amounts to $3,500,000 and is con- 
stantly increasing from further sales of land. In 1879 there were 
3,284 school houses, 4,872 teachers and 160,867 scholars. The State 
has also a state university in successful operation, which has a 
permanent fund of §375,000, which will be increased by further sales 
of special grants of land. 

The State has also three state normal schools and these have 
also a grant of 225,000 acres of land. In addition to all this, there 
are some sixty denominational schools, some of which rank very high. 
As a part of the educational system of the State, and as indicating 
something of tho intelligence of the people, it should be stated that 
many excellent newspapers and jDeriodicals are published in the 
State, almost every county having one, or more. 

Among the other great public institutions, it must not be over- 
looked that the State has now two hospitals for the insane, an 
institution for the deaf, dumb and blind, a reform school and a state 
prison, all admirably conducted. 

In all this but a very general exhibit is presented of the marve- 
lous development and present condition of the State. It is a source 
of pride and hope and reviewing it the thought is suggested, what, 
at this rate of progress, with the vast possibilities evidently here, 
shall be the grand totals, which may be written, at the end of 
another quarter of a century? 

And now we close this sketch with the testimony of a non- 
resident, impartial and well informed-witness: 

"I will venture the general statement that no state in the Union 
has today the same pi'oportioa of people to its entire population, 
more thoroughly educated and refined; that no such proportion of 
fine churches, splendid schools and educational appliances of so 
complete a character and such general provision for everything, 
which pertains to healthy civilization and generous social culture 
elsewhere exists, as in Minnesota. The railway, the telegraph, the 
newspaper are everywhere. Everything is bright and fresh and 
new, and the gigantic and wonderful progress, which is here uni- 
versal is universally stamped with such elegance and beauty, as 
have only come with half centuries in older communities." 



16 HISTORY OF 

The writer is indebted for much of the substance of the above 
sketch, to Neill's History of Minnesota. Minnesota as it is in 1870, 
Footprints of Time, American Cyclopedia, United States Statutes, 
Tit. Treaties, History of St. Paul and Ramsey County and several 
state and other publications. 



The foregoing statistics show the progress of the State up to 
the closing period of this history, 1879, soon after which time they 
were compiled. 

But many years have passed since that date, and it is, there- 
fore, proper to add now, a few additional facts and figures, exhibit- 
ing the advancement of the State, up to the present time— the year 
of publication of this work. 

Population of the state In 1895 1,574,619 

Assessed value of real estate , $353,157,461 

Assessed value of personal estate 104,012,823 

Total $857,170,284 

STATE INSTITUTION.S. 

University of Minnesota, including Department of Agriculture 
and Experiment Station. 

Four State Normal Schools. 

Eighty eight State High Schools. ■• 

Over Six thousand District Schools. 

There are also many denominational Schools and Colleges in 
the state. 

Permanent SUte University Fund. . . . Sl.034.067. 

Permanent State School Fund 811,000,000. 

And these funds are constantly increasing. 

Institute for Defectives, embracing School for the Blind, School 
for the Deaf, School for the Feeble-minded. Faribault. 

Three Hospitals for the Insane, and a fourth one to be erected 
immedaitely. 

State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children. 
Owalonna. 

State Agricultural Society, possessing extensive grounds and 
buildings. 

State Reform School. Red Wing. 

State Historical Society, having a Library of over 50,000 vol- 
umes. St. Paul. 

State Soldiers Home. Minnehaha Falls. 

State Library of 2."), 000 volumes, which is in fact the great 
State Law Library. St. Paul. 

Stale Reformatory. St. Cloud. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 17 

State Prison. Stillwater. 

There are now 7,000,000 acres of cultivated land in the State 
and 100,000 farms. 

Production of three great cereals. ( Taken from latest report 
of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.) 

Wheat 41,210,000 bushels. 

Corn 24,]92,000 " 

Oats 43,578,000 

By this report Minnesota is the greatest wheat growing state 
in the Union, except one. 

NUMBER OF CERTAIN LIVE STOCK. 

Horses, all ages 523,205. 

Cattle, including cows 945,490. 

Sheep 352,-347. 

Hogs 278,251. 

There are six thousand miles of Rail Roads in operation in the 
State. 

There are 146 State Banks and 79 National Banks, and numer- 
ous private Banks. 

There are also many State Boards, Societies and Commissions, 
which we cannot name here. 

IRON MINES. 

Within the past decade it has been discovered that Minnesota 
possesses the greatest iron ore district in the world and to-day a 
great number of mines are open aud worked, from which a vast 
output is shipped to the large iron manufacturing centers. The 
business is yet but in its infancy. 

MANUFACTURES. 

According to the national census of 1890, there were then em- 
ployed in the State 79,629 persons, working in the manufacturing 
establishments of the State, to whom there was paid, as wages, 
§38,189,239. 

One of the great industries of the State is the manufacture of 
flour. The production of flour exceeds that of any other state in the 
Union, and in fact nearly equals the output of all the other states 
combined. 

Ten million of barrels was the output for the year ending De- 
cember 31, 1894. 

The flour of this State is sent to all parts of the world. 

The manufacture of lumber has reached enormous proportions. 
The lumber cut, at Minneapolis alone, for 1894, amounted to 
491,256,793 feet, besides shingles and lath. 

The still existing vast forests of pine, give the assurance of the 
continuance of this industry for years to come. 



18 HISTORY OF 

Numerous other manufacturing establishments exist throughout 
the State, such as paper makers, extensive brick yards, potteries, 
agricultural implement, sash and door and furniture factories, and 
others too uumorous to mention. 

DAIRYING. 

The production of butter and cheese is already very great, an- 
nually, the former by the last report exceeded 40,000.000 pounds 
and the latter 2,000,000 pounds. Creameries are numerous through- 
out the State. 

The reader may now compare these latter figures with those 
given for 1879, and he will be surprised and gratified at the truly 
wonderful advancement of the State and may indeed, say that here 
"Progress swells on every breeze." 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 19 



SECTION SECOND. 



LOCATION AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 
OF FARIBAULT COUNTY. 



It has been wisely said "The physical characteristics of a land 
should be known, to correctly understand the history of its people." 
It is indeed true that the skies that are over them, the scenes that 
are around them, the climate they live in, even the food they eat 
and the very air they breath, all exert a powerful influence on the 
lives, the character and the achievements of a people. 

Faribault county is situated on the southern boundary of the 
State, in the valley of the Blue Earth river, and in the center of the 
most southern tier of counties. It is bounded on the north by Blue 
Earth and Waseca counties, on the east by Freeborn county, on the 
south by Winnebago and Kossuth counties, in the State of Iowa and 
on the west by Martin county. 

That portion of the State, now comprised within the boundaries 
of this county, with much other territory, was by authority of the 
general government, surveyed and divided into townships and lesser 
subdivisions in the year 1854. 

The county is comprised of townships 10 L, lO'J, 103, 101 north, 
in Ranges 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 west, of the 5th principal Meridian, 
being twenty Congressional, or Land-survey townships, each six 
miles square, each township containing thirty-six square miles, each 
square mile being a section. Hence the county is thirty miles long, 
east and west, and twenty-four miles wide, north and south, and con- 
tains seven hundred and twenty- three square miles, or sections in- 
cluding fractions, and 463,184 acres of land, of which there is 
covered by water 9,151 acres. When the county was first formed, 
it embarced four more towns on the west, in Range 29,butthey were 
detached and added to Martin County, by act of the Legislature 
passed May 23d, 1857. 

The general surface of the county is not broken or hilly, but is 
slightly and desirably varied, or in other words, is gently undulat- 
ing, or "rolling,'" thus affording natural drainage and facilities for 
artificial drainage, if desired. There is but little waste, or unpro- 



20 HI STORY OF 

ductivG lands. The surface of the county permits the making of 
good, dry roads, of easy grade and at little cost. 

And here some britf observations as to the geological forma- 
tion and history of the land, embraced within the limits of the 
county, are appropriate. 

Tlie county is covered heavily by drift, or diluvium, and there is 
no where any out crop of the bedrock, wilnin the county. 

But some of our readers may be pleased with some explanation 
of the term •'drift,' in this connection. 

The following quotations, relating to this subject, are taken 
from Wells' First Principles of Geology: 

••The theory of the drift, which has been originated by Lyell, 
Hitchcock and other authorities, and which is now accepted by 
most geologists, is substantially as follows: It is supposed that 
about the close of the tertiary epoch, a subsidence of land took 
place in the Northern Hemisphere, which was accompanied by a 
great reduction of temperature, and that as in consequence of this 
access of cold. Glaciers formed upon most of the northern mountains 
and as in Greenland, at the present day, extended to the sea 

"Large islands and bergs of floating ice, laden with detritus 
(clay, sand, gravel and rock-masses) were also moved southerly, 
from the Polar regions, by oceanic currents. 

••When the ice bergs and floes melted, their burdens of detritus, 
including fragments of rock, both large and small, which^had been 
frozen into them, as parts of glaciers or coast ice, would fall to the 
bottom of the ocean and in this way boulders, as well as finer ma- 
terials, would be scattered over extensive areas." P. P. 304, 30iJ. 

••Finally, it is supposed, a gradual elevation of the submerged 
lands took place and that during their re-emergence the materials 
which covered them, were still further modified by exposure to the 
disturbing and stratifying action of waves, ice, tides and currents." 
pg. 305 ••In America the drift extended from the Polar regions, as 
far south as about latitude, forty degrees." pg. 297. 

And now a further word in reference to boulders, or lost rocks, 
so many of which are scattered over the surface of our county. 
••The boulders which are everywhere characteristic of the drift for- 
mation, vary in size from a few pounds, to masses of hundreds, or 
even thousands of tons weight. They are generally more or less 
rounded in form, as if water worn, and are unlike the rocks in place, 
which underlie them." 

'•In short » * * the most superficial observer could hardly 
fail to arrive at the conclusion, that they are foreign lo the localities 
where they occur and must have been transported from a distance, 
by some powerful agency;" such as that above indicated. (Pg. 298. ) 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 21 

It is, perhaps, proper to say that other theories, explanatory of 
the drift phenouiena, have been proposed fi'om time to time. 

For what is further said here, in reference to this subject, the 
writer is indebted to that admirable work, "The Geological and 
Natural History Survey of Minnesota," volume I, chapter 14. 

"The whole of Faribault county lies within the basin of the 
Blue Earth River, which flows northerly; * * * while the east 
fork of this river, formed by Jones and Brush Creeks, in the south- 
east part of the county, flows west * * * and joins the main stream. 
The middle part of the north third of the county, is drained by the 
head streams of the Maple river, which is tributary to the Le Sueur 
and through that to the Blue Earth River. The northeastern town- 
ship is drained principally by the Big Cobb river, also reaching the 
Blue Earth through the Le Sueur river. The general slopes of the 
surface thus descend northward; fx-om the southeast part of the 
county westerly to Blue Earth City, and from its west boundary east- 
erly to the Blue Earth river." 

"The thickness of the drift upon this county, probably varies 
fi'om 75 to 200 feet, averaging 125, or jjerhaps 150 feet. It is com- 
posed mainly of till, which encloses occasional veins and beds of 
gravel and sand." 

"The streams have channelled from thirty to one hundred feet 
into the drift." 

"The bottom land, five to twenty feet above the streams, is 
mainly from a quarter to a half mile wide, bordered by steep blutfs^ 
that rise to the * * * expanse of till' * * * which covers the 
whole county, excepting two belts of morainic hills. One of these 
extends from (the town of ) Kiester, in the southeast corner of the 
county, northwestward, nearly to Delavan; and the other, which 
lies mostly in Iowa, includes the southern edge of Elmore and Pilot 
Grove." 

"The mean elevation of the county is 1,130 feet, very nearly 
above the sea. The highest points, the hills in section 3, Kiester, 
are about 1,400 feet above the sea, and its lowest land, in the val- 
leys of the Blue Earth and Maple rivers, slightly less than 1,000." 

In conclusion of this subject here, it is interesting to learn that 
in the Ice Age, the basin of the Blue Earth river covering almost all 
of this county and portions of adjoining counties, there existed a 
great glacial lake, dammed on the north by the barrier of the wan- 
ing ice sheet of the last glacial epoch, during a considerable time, 
in which this was retreating northward and northwestward from the 
south line of the State, and from its eastern moraine, until its re- 
cession uncovered the present avenue of drainage, to the northeast, 
by the Minnesota river. Until this avenue of outflow was opened, 
"the outlet of this glacial lake was in Kossuth CountJ^ Iowa, at the 



22 lllSToliV OF 

head of the most southern branch of the Blue Earth river, where 
Union Slough occupies a continuous channel from the head-waters 
of the Blue Earth to Buffalo creek and the east fork of the Des 
Moines." The depth of this lake in the north part of this county, 
ranged from tifty to one hundred and twenty five feet. 

But unnumbered centuries have rolled away since the tremen- 
dous "ice age." of which our knowledge at best, is but conjectural. 
Let us resume the description of the county, as it is known in our 
own time. 

The county is well watered throughout, the number and distri- 
bution of the streams and lakes being admirable, a*: will appear by 
a glance at the map of the county. The main streams are the Blue 
Earth, Maple and Cobb rivers, and Coon, Badger, Olter, South, 
Middle, Elm. Foster and Brush creeks, and many small, nameless 
rivulets. There are also the following lakes: Minnesota, Bass, 
Maple, Pilot Grove, Ozatonka, Walnut, Swan and two Rice lakes, 
besides a number of small lakelets not named. Minnesota lake is 
the largest body of water in the county. In digging wells water is 
usually found in abundance at fifteen to seventy feet depth. The 
well water is very pure, clear and cold, and is slightly impregnated 
with lime. The streams are indeed "living waters," pure and cold, 
and usually running with rapid current, over gravelly beds. The 
lakes are beautiful sheets of water, from twenty rods to three 
miles in diameter, and are famous for their crystal purity, reflecting 
in their depths the changing foliage of the groves upon their banks, 
and the blue and clouds of the summer skies. There is a strange 
fascination in the silent beauty of these placid mirror-like sheets of 
water with their frame-work of dark green timber borders. And 
when it is remembered that here the Indian, not long since, was 
often seen in his swift canoe skimming over the surface, and that 
about these lakes ho lived and loved, made war and followed the 
chase, immagination needs add but little, to invest the scenery with 
romantic interest. 

Timber is very well distriljuted throughout the county for a 
prairie country and is found in sutficient quantities to supply the 
demand for fuel and other purposes for many years. The facilities 
for procuring coal from the South and building lumber from the 
North, by rail, lessens constantly the demand for native limber. 

The timber is confined mainly to the borders of the lakes and 
streams and is of great practical advantage to the country besides 
adding to the beauty of the landscape in breaking up the monotony 
of "the billowy sea of land." 

It consists of basswood, burr-oak, black oak, black walnut, 
butternut, cherry, hickory, ash, red elm, water-elm, ironwood, box- 
elder, Cottonwood, poplar, hard and soft maple, hawthorn, dogwood, 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 23 

hackberry, willow and several other varieties. The predominant 
and most useful kinds are basswood, oak, walnut, maple, cotton- 
wood and elm. In addition to the above, the prairie farmers, 
throughout the county, have set out groves on their lands, of one to 
ten acres of i-apidly growing varieties of forest trees, which add 
greatly to the beauty of the country and what is more important, 
to their comfort and convenience, such groves affording agreeable 
shade in the heat of summer and protection from the storms of 
winter. The people of the villages too, have set out vast numbers 
of shade and ornamental trees, about their premises, along the lines 
of their streets and on the public squares. The prediction may well 
be made, that twenty years hence there will be more timber in the 
county than at its first settlement and that owing to the extent of 
the groves, and the long lines of trees along the highways, the winds 
will be tempered and the climate greatly modified, and that the 
whole county will present the pleasing appearance of a natural 
arcadia. 

The soil of the county is a black loam, having a considerable 
mixtui-e of sand, rendering it warm and causing a very rapid growth 
of vegetation. It abounds in mineral elements and is rich in organic 
ingredients, originating from the decay of the vegetable growth of 
many centuries. It cannot be surpassed in fertility and ranges in 
depth from two to four feet. The sub-soil is clay. The day will 
never come, probably, when it can be said that the soil of this county 
is "worn out." Wheat, oats, barley, corn, and potatoes are the 
principal productions. Rye, buckwheat, beans, millet, sorghum, 
broom- corn, flax and tobacco are raised with success. Garden 
vegetables, in great variety and perfection and in vast quanties are 
annually produced. Clover, timothy, red top and other tame grasses 
are raised successfully, but up to the present time, have not been 
much needed, owing to the great abundance and nutritive quality 
of the native grasses, which have proved abundantly suflicient, for 
pasturage and hay. All the cereals, grasses and vegetables raised 
in the middle states can be raised here and under the higher and 
better cultivation, which a large population and ample means will 
effect, in the future, this county will become one of the most pro- 
ductive and wealthy agricultural districts in the world. The real 
extent of the producing power of this soil, under high and careful 
tillage, is yet practically unknown, but it will be seen at no distant 
day and with astonishment. 

The climate of this county is that, speaking generally, of the 
State, but modified somewhat by the fact that the county is situated 
in the extreme southern part of the State. It is true the winters 
are usually longer and colder than in the more southern latitudes of 
the temperate zone, and some winters are colder, longer and 



24 HISTOllY OF 

stormier than others, but it often occurs that there is a milder 
winter here than in northern New York or in the New England 
states. And the winters here have ever been as bright and cheerful 
and marlccd with as much business activity and social and domestic 
enjoyments, both indoors and out, as they have been in any country 
north of Mason and Dixon's line. It is also true that when great 
storms of wind, snow or rain occur in Minnesota, they also usually 
occur in states much further south or east, and are equally severe ; 
and while the mercury sinks very low sometimes, unquestionable 
records prove that the climate here is much more equable, and subject 
to less sudden changes, than that of many other countries, with which 
no fault is ever found. But whatever disadvantages, if any, there 
may bo in the winters being longer or colder than in more .southern 
latitudes, they are amply counterbalanced by many great advan- 
tages. This is pre eminently the land of health and of physical and 
mental activity. The atmosphere is pure, dry and bracing. There 
are no tainted winds ; no stagnant waters and sluggish streams ; no 
malaria, no fevers, agues or pulmonary diseases. The bright eye, 
the ruddy cheek, the swiftly coursing blood and vital energy, the 
abounding health, which characterize the gi'eat majority of the 
people of this country, tell a story worth far more than "The balmy 
breezes," the "soft and fragrant air," and the "Pulseless langour" 
of " the Sunny South." 

Considerable attention has been paid to the cultivation of tame 
fruits. At an early day it was thought by some, that the climate 
was too severe to raise any fruits here with success, but this like many 
another absurd notion has been abandoned. Nature itself indicates 
that many varieties of fruit may be cultivated here as well as else- 
where. Among the wild fruit growing in abundance are crab apples, 
grapes, plums, cherries, gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries. 
Tame fruits are now raised throughout the county. Among the 
varieties of apples most generally successful, besides numerous 
seedlings, are the Duchess of Oldenburg, Red Astrachan, Fameuse, 
Golden Russets, Fall Stripe, or Saxton, Haas, Tetofski, Wealthy, 
Sweet Pear apple and Tallmou Sweet. 

Several varieties of plums, pears and cherries, the Siberian 
crab, transcendent, hyslop and various seedlings, prove success- 
ful, and the small fruits such as currants, gooseberries, straw- 
berries, raspberries and grapes are raised in great abundance, and 
in wonderful perfection. 

The varieties of fish and game of this region are treated of fur- 
ther along in this book,, but a word must be said of the birds; yes 
the birds. Who would live in a country whore there are no birds? 
They are indeed a part of the great economy of nature for man's 
blessing. They have followed us up to this new land. From early 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 25 

spring, until late in the fall, the woods and groves are vocal with 
the notes of these airy choristers; and some remain with us during 
the winter. The robin, cat-bird, wren, blue-jay, martin, swallow, 
tom-tit, yellow birds, blue birds, sapsuckers, red birds, doves, hum- 
ming birds and the chickadee, come about our houses, build their 
nests, rear their broods and sing their summer songs. But we have 
many others not so friendly — the black bird, pigeon, woodpecker, 
the lark, king birds, owls, snow bunting, thrush, hawks, crows and 
the other varieties that are sought as game, and mentioned else- 
where. They are all welcome here, for they all have a useful pur- 
pose to fulfill. 

The natural scenery of this county is not such as is usually des- 
ignated as grand or striking, but it is picturesque and beautiful. 
The wide-spreading prairies dotted over with oak openings and 
green groves — the distant meandering lines of dark blue timber, 
bordering the streams — the silvery lakes glittering in the sun; 
deep, dark old forest glens and nooks; green hills and quiet vales, 
and the luxuriant and bright green foliage and vegetation, and the 
wealth of wild flowers, all through the spring and summer and 
the no less bright and manifold colored leaves of autumn, all 
viewed in the pure, bright atmosphere, must delight the eye of 
the most fastidious admirers of the beautiful in nature. Neither 
the poet nor the painter, here need hunger or thirst. 

And now, after this introductory chapter, in which it has been 
attempted to describe, briefly, the splendid territory— the arena— 
within whose boundaries the events to be recorded have occurred, 
we may enter upon the histoiy proper of the county. 



PART FIRST. 



THE ANNALS 

OF 

FAKIBAULT COUNTY, 

MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTER I. 

Anno Domini, 1855. 

" Spirit of Memory! 
Thou that hast garnered up the joys and tears, 
And all the human spoil of buried years, 

We bow to thee: 
O, lift the vail and bid the past appear." — Anon. 

The history of this county properly begins with the events of 
the year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-five. 
It was in that year the county was named, its boundaries defined 
and its first settlement made by civilized men. But the pi-esent 
occupants of the soil were preceded by other races and it is a matter 
of profound interest to learn what is now known of them. 

At least two races of men, wholly different in origin, language, 
religion, habits and customs from each other and from our own 
race, have appeared here and each performed its part, in a great 
drama of national, or tribal and individual life, through unknown cen- 
turies and at last retired, the curtain, thick and dark, falling upon' 
scenes and hiding them forever. 

In the eloquent words of Senator Ramsey, it is truthfully said 
that, "Not a foot of ground that we tread but has been trodden by 
nations before us. Tribes of men have marched their armies over 
the sites of our towns and fields; fierce battles have been fought 
where churches now rear their spires; our plow-shares turn 
furrows amidst the graves of buried races and our children play 



28 UJ STORY OF 

where perhaps generations of children have played, centuries before 
them." 

When will the drama end and the curtain drop up(jn tlic lii^j^her 
and grander scenes being enacted hero by the present racer Never! 
exclaims the hopeful and confident. Yet, who in the light of all 
past human history, may answer thus 't But who were our prede- 
cessors here r What manner of men were they ? What of their 
deeds and destiny ? 

THE MOUND BUILDERS. 

No mounds, or tumuli, have yet been discovered within the 
limits of this county to indicate that the mysterious and lost race of 
of the Mound Builders ever existed here, but several small copper 
implements and articles of pottery, such as is usually believed to be 
the remains of that forgotten race, have been found, and at some 
distance south of us, in the state of Iowa, and in several of the 
counties on the east, north and west of this, their undoubted works 
exist; from all of which it may be confidently inferred, that they 
knew and probably inhabited, this intervening territory. 

It may reasonably be expected that still more conclusive evi- 
dences will yet be discovered, in, or near, this county, that they 
once existed here. 

They were a prehistoric race and but little is now known of 
them. Almost all memorials of them have perished from the earth. 
Even their true name, as a race, or people, is lost and they are now 
known and named only from the gre&t and curious mounds, extend- 
ing through the Mississippi vallej' from the Great Lakes to the gulf, 
which were the works of their hands. 

From what remains of them — these mounds — their contents and 
other evidences, it may fairly be determined that this "Ancient 
population was numerous and widely spread, as shown from the 
number and magnitude of their works and the extensive range of 
their occurrence." That they were not nomadic, but lived in vil- 
lages and settlements, generally near great rivers and their tribu- 
taries. They were far in advance of the American Indian in their 
knowledge of arts and in civilization. They were agriculturists and 
wore clothing of woven cloth and had comfortable dwellings. They 
had a variety of articles of food, of which fish was the principal one. 
They were industrious, even very laborious, and possessed consid- 
erable mechanical and artistic skill. They had some knowledge of 
the arts of war and of the construction of fortifications. 

They manufactured beautiful vases and other articles of pot- 
tery, and they could model clay into a variety of objects, such as 
birds, quadrupeds and the human face. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 29 

They used sun-dried bricks. They mined for copper and other 
precious ores. They had a definite standard of measurement and 
they had tools of copper, silver and stone. They had axes, chisels, 
knives, mauls, hammers, crucibles, spear-points, slates and cups, 
beads and bracelets, all well finished. 

Though they cultivated the soil, it appears that they had no 
horses, oxen or carts. 

They had a system of hieroglyphic, or picture-writing, but un- 
intelligible now, and knew something of practical surveying. They 
had commercial relations with some now unknown and distant 
nations. They made toys for their children and had some articles 
of fine workmanship, for the adornment of their persons and the 
embelishment of their homes and temples. They had a sense of the 
humorous, as appears from the caricatures and grotesque figures 
they sketched on vases and other articles. 

They had a peculiar art, that of building mounds of earth, some 
of which were of vast size and of considerable height; some were 
circular, others square and others were circular enclosures. Some 
of their mounds, made on the level ground, were in the shape of 
animals, birds, bows, arrows and human figures. Some represented 
elephants, or mammoths, the turtle and immense serjients, and some 
the hide of some animal stretched on the ground. In some locali- 
ties these mounds and figures occupied as much as twenty acres of 
ground. It is supposed that some of these curious shaped earth- 
works, were used as fortifications, others as burial places of the 
distinguished dead, and others as places of sacrifice and religious 
worship. 

The mounds built by the Indians, are quite different from those 
of the Mound-builders. It is a curious fact that the skulls found in 
the mounds of the Mound-builders, are of a shape entirely different 
fi'om those that characterize the Indian, and the shin-bones resur- 
rected from the same place, singularly flat, a peculiarity not noticed 
in the bones of any other tribe or race of people. 

The Mound-builders had a system of religion — they were sun- 
worshippers and believed in immortality and had many sacred places 
and temples for i-eligious worship . And here our summary must 
end. They have passed away into the deep darkness and voiceless 
silence of the long past centuries. From whence they came, who 
they were and whether, as has been said, they "Migrated to remote 
lands under the combined attractions of a more fertile soil and more 
genial climate, or whether they disappeared beneath the victorious 
arms of an alien race, or were swept out of existence by some 
direful epidemic, or universal famine, are questions probably be- 
yond the power of human investigation to answer." It seems prob- 



80 II I STORY OF 

able that they disappeared because, as the poet Bryant has graphi- 
cally said — 

"The rod man came, 
The roaming huntcr-trlbes, warlike and fierce, 
And the Mound-builders vanished from the earth." 

Some late investigators have, however, claimed with much as- 
surance, that the Mound- builders were not a race, or people, separ- 
ate, or distinct from the Indian, but were, in fact, the ancestors of 
the Indians, who have degenerated. If so, the degeneration must 
have been very great indeed. At all events, the differences in the 
character and civilization of the Mound-builders and those of the 
Indians, were so great that, practically, they may well be deemed 
different races of men. 

But the day may come, probably will, when the pyramids of 
Egypt, the ancient ruined cities of the East and America and these 
mounds shall give up their secrets. Yea, the deep, deep sea shall 
some day surrender up the story of the lost Atlantis, even the story 
of the lost Lemuria. 

THE RED MEN. 

The occupants of this region of country at the time of, and 
probably for many centuries prior, to the advent of the white man, 
were certain bands of the Indian nation, known as the Sioux or 
Dakotas. The Dakotas were among the most populous, Varlike 
and powerful of the many savage nations which have inhabited the 
w'estern continent. 

They occupied a vast territory, including nearlj' all of Minne- 
sota, the Dakotas and a region of country west of the Missouri to 
the Rocky Mountains, and northward to the British Possessions. 
This great nation was divided into many tribes, four of which occu- 
pied nearly all of the country now comprising the state of Minne- 
sota. These tribes were named the Medawakonton, Wapeton, Wap- 
ekuta and Sissoton Sioux, and each of them had its own hereditary 
chief. Each of these tribes was subdivided into bands, each band 
having also its chief, and all these various bands had their own sep- 
arate territory, or hunting grounds, but their claims of territory 
were often indefinite and conllicting. They are a confederate 
pation. It appears from a consultation of the best authorities on the 
subject, that the territory on the headwaters of the Blue Earth 
river and adjacent on the west, was anciently claimed by the Wapa- 
kutas. or Leaf-Shooters and the Sissetons. In the year 1700. when 
M. Le Sueur erected a rude fort, near the mouth of the Blue Earth 
river, referred to el-sewhere in this work, this country was in pos- 
session of bands of the "Sioux of the west," known as the Ayavols 
(lowas) and Otoctatas (Ottoes). But little is known of any of these 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 31 

people and there is much confusion, some contradiction and a great 
deal of uncertainty in the very meagre records of the aboriginal in - 
habitants. Of tlae origin of the American Indian, as little is known 
as that of the Mound builders. 

The Dakotas have ever been a barbarous and nomadic race. As 
to their physical characteristics, they are of a red copper color, 
variously shaded. The men are of middle stature, large boned and 
well made, eyes black, half closed and lodged in deep sockets; high 
cheek bones, nose more or less aquiline, mouth large, lips rather 
thick and the hair of the head black, straight and coarse. In many 
tribes they pluck out all the hair of the beard. The general expres- 
sion of the countenance is gloomy; stolid and severe. The women 
are usually short in stature and have broad, homely features and 
low foreheads, and while they sometimes have an expression of 
mildness and pleasantness, beauty is rare among them. They are 
the slaves and drudges of their race. Both the men and women are 
great lovers of ornaments, and are usually loaded with beads, rings, 
bangles and tinkling gewgaws. 

The Indian has a fair understanding, a quick apprehension, a 
retentive memory and very acute senses and assumes a peculiar air 
of profound indifference, in his general appearance and actions. 

President Sparkes, of Harvard, says : "With a strength of 
character and a reach of intellect unknown in any other race of 
absolute savages, the Indian united many traits, some of them hon- 
orable and some degrading to humanity, which made him formidable 
in his enmity, faithless in his friendship, and at all times a danger- 
ous neighbor; cruel, implacable, treacherous, yet not without a few 
of the better qualities of the heart and the head; a being of con- 
trasts, violent in his passions, hasty in his anger, fixed in his revenge, 
j'^et cool in counsel, seldom betraying his plighted honor, hospitable, 
sometimes generous. A few names have stood out among them, 
which, with the culture of civilization, might have been shining 
stars on the lists of recorded fame."' 

The Indians of this region are strangers to letters and wholly 
untutored. They know but little of the simplest arts and nothing 
of science, and leave behind them no records, monuments, or other 
memorials, excei^t traditions of bloody deeds and some of their 
names given to states, mountains, rivers and localities. They are 
polytheists and their religion is a strange medley of superstitious 
incantations and sorceries, but yet has some redeeming, though 
crude, central ideas. 

Speaking generally of their religion, the wild Indians believe 
in a good God, known as the Great Spirit, and a bad God, both 
equal in power. They have, also, some minor Gods. They think 
the good God wants no thanks or p;:ayers. but the bad one they hate 



32 HISTOIIY OF 

and fear, bribe and entreat. They believe in tiie immortality of the 
soul, and that their final destiny is the "Happy Hunting Grounds." 
They also believe in the existence of spiritual beings that are neither 
good Dor bad. 

But these Indians are devoid of any moral sense, or sense of 
moral obligation, or accountability, as connected with their religion. 
They have no code of morals. Their ideas of right and wrong are 
very shadowy and there are many ditfering shades, in their relig- 
ious beliefs. 

Their clothing is made of dressed skins and, since their ac 
quaintanco with the white man, cheap cloth and woolen blankets, 
and their dwoUings are rude, temporary shelters, made of skins and 
bark, called wigwams, or teepos, and are moved from place to place. 

They live by the chase and on wild rice and fish, and they also 
plant a little corn and raise a few potatoes, but the j' are much more 
skillful in planting a knife in a foe"s back and in raising scalps. 
They are indolent and provide only for today. The men think 
labor degrading and hence the women do all the work. The war- 
path and the chase are the occupations of the men and when en- 
gaged in these, they are active, persevering and untiring. The 
phrase, ••poverty, hunger and dirt," describes their normal condi 
tion. The attempts to civilize and christianize these Indians have 
proved an almost wasted labor. Yet of late years some little suc- 
cess has crowned these beneficent ert'orts. * 

The Dakotas like most other Indian peoples, delight in deeds 
of cunning, treachery and blood, but there have been a few notable 
individual exceptions. It really seems that •'the only hope for the 
Indian is to educate him, make him a citizen with a citizens rights 
and responsibilities and absorb him into the body politic." Re- 
cognizing and treating with the Indian tribes within our jurisdic- 
tion, as separate nations from ours, they remaining subject to their 
own barbarous laws and customs, must always prove a failure, in 
all attempts to civilize them. Of those who inhabited this land in 
the long ago, there is dimly shadowed in old and wild traditions, 
recounted by the early trappers and voyageurs, visions of wild 
orgies and deeds of such darkness, indecency and cruelty, that the}' 
may not be written and of which ••it is more blessed to be ignoi'- 
ant." We may know, however, that here in our own county have 
been Inward the twang of the bow and the sharp crack of the rille 
and the wild war-hoop of this wily savage — that here they lived for 
centuries, hunting over our prairies and fishing in the lakes and rivers 
and that this soil has witnessed the advance and retreat and drank the 
blood of many contending foes, and 

'•ITL're too tliiit eloquence was heard 
Around ttie council. litiht, 
Which made the sturdy warrior bold 
And nerved hloi for the llnhl."' 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 33 

But wasted by incessant wars, starved by famines, swept by 
pestilences, poisoned and demoralized by drunkenness, eaten up by 
loathsome diseases— always the helpless pray of greedy jjlunders— 
decimated to mere remnants and these forced to retire, bearing the 
burdens of great wrongs suffered, as well as done by them and 
chanting their weird dirges, so suggestive of the dark and hopeless 
future of their race, they are "moving on," toward the setting sun 
and final extinction. 

Upon no subject-race, except that of the Negro, perhaps, have 
ever been imposed such shames and frauds and wrongs, since the 
world began, as have been heaped upon the American Indian, and 
on the other hand, no oppressed race has ever struck back with 
such fiendish and persistent malignity as his, and in this matter of 
our dealings with the Indians, if God be just and man be immortal, 
and if all wrongs done by individuals and nations, must be righted, 
certainly, there is an awful day of reckoning coming sometime and 
somewhere, for somebody. 

But we must proceed, another and a mightier race is advancing 
to occupy the vacant lands. 

"I hear the tread of pioneers 
Of nations yet to be; 
The first low wash of waves, where soon 
Shall roll a human sea." 

THE NATION. 

Let us look about us for a moment. Casting an eye over the 
national field, we find that in 1855, Franklin Pierce was President 
of the United States. The nation then had a population of about 
27,000,000 of i^eople. The Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had 
restricted slavery, within certain limits, had been repealed and the 
Compromise of 1850, which, with other provisions, imbodied the 
odious Fugitive Slave Law, had practically proved a failure in the 
North, and the contest in regard to slave, or free territory, a feature 
of the"Irrepresible Conflict," was the great absorbing national ques- 
tion of the times, and finally led to civil war in Kansas, which raged 
for nearly three yeai-s. Stephen A. Douglass was then promulgat- 
ing the doctrine of "Squatter Sovereignity." The old Whig party 
had become extinct and its former adherents in the North, uniting 
with all the parties and factions opposed to the extension of slavery 
into the territories, was rapidly forming the great Republican 
party preparatory to the presidential contest of the next year. 

MINNESOTA. 

Turning our attention to Minnesota, it will be observed that a 
great tide of immigration had for several years been setting toward 
this territory, most of the new-comers locating in the eastern and 



34 HISTORY OF 

and central counties, and the territory was enjoying an era of great 
prosperity. Willis A. Gorman was then governor of the territory, 
and Henry M. Ivico was our dele<rate in Congress. 

Un the third day of January, 1855, the sixth territorial legis- 
lature assembled at St. Paul. An important part of the business of 
the session was that of carving out of the grand domain of the terri- 
tory, many new counties. 

THE COUNTY. 

On the twentieth day of February, a)i act was passed entitled 
"An Act to Define the Boundaries of Certain Counties." By section 
six of said act, it is enacted, "That so much territory as is embraced 
in the following boundaries, l>e and the same is hereby establi-shed 
as the county of Faribault: beginning at the southwest corner of 
township one hundred and one (101) north, range twenty-three (23) 
west, running thence west on the boundary line between the territory 
of Minnesota and the state of Iowa, thirty-six miles to the township 
line, between ranges twenty- nine (29) and thirty (80) west; thence 
north on said township line twenty-four miles to the township line, be- 
tween one hundred and four (104) and one hundred and five (105) 
north; thence east on said line thirty-six (36) miles to the township 
line between range twenty-three and twenty-four west; thence south 
on said township line twenty-four (24) miles to the place of be- 
ginning." 

An api)ortionment of the territory was made at the same session 
of the legislature, for legislative purposes. District number ten 
(10), was composed of the counties of Le Sueur, Steele, Faribault, 
Blue Earth, Brown, Nicollet, Sibley, Pierce and Renville, and was 
entitled to one councilman and three representatives. 

THE NAME OF THE COUNTY. 

The couniy of Faribault was so named in honor of Jean Baptiste 
Faribault. Gen. Henry H. Sibley, a gentleman of distinguished char- 
acter and abilities, and as well acquainted with the early history t)f 
the State, its prominent men and public affairs, as any other person 
in the State, and a member of the legislature, at the above session, 
in a letter answering an inquiry on this subject, says: 

St. Paul, Minn., May 13, 1872. 
J. A. KlESTER, Esq., 

Dear Sir: 1 have your favor of the 9th inst., and id reply beg leave to 
state, that while I have no positive inforruatiun on that point, my strong im- 
pression is, that your county was named for Jean B. Faribault, lie having been 
one of the oldest of our pioneers, and reference to that fact being the basis 
upon which some of our counties were designated. You are right in the state- 
ment that the city of Faribault was named for his son, Alexander Faribault, 
who was the founder of the town and still resides there. 1 think you will not 
go wrong in assuming that Faribault County was named for the senior ot that 
name. Very truly yours, 

H. H. SIBLEY. 




J. B. fARIBAULT. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 35 

In reply to a letter subsequently addressed to J. F. Williams, 
Esq., the courteous and efficient Secretary of the Minnesota Histori- 
cal Society, the following answer was received: 

St. Paul., Dec. 26, 1872, 
J. A. KiESTER, Esq., 

My Dear Sir: I am still unable to ascertain anything definite, or satis- 
factory, relative to the naming of Faribault County. I have tallied with sev- 
eral who (I thought) ought to know, but strange to say, they cannot tell any 
more than we can. I have written to others with even less success. * * «■ 
What I can learn, however, leads me to conclude that Faribault County was 
named for Jean Baptiste Faribault. It would seem natural, reasoning on gen- 
eral principles, that it should have been named for him. He was one of the 
very earliest pioneers of Minnesota. * * * He was a man of fine education, 
good abilities, considerable means and great influence, both among whites and 
Indians, at an early day. If, as was done frequently, counties were named 
after pioneers and early explorers, he would be the one selected. I am per- 
fectly satisfied as much as if I knew it, that Faribault County was named for 
Jean Baptiste Faribault. 

I remain yours truly, 

J. F. WILLIAMS. 
And who was 

Jean Baptiste Faribault? 

We find the following brief notice of him in the Collections of 
the Minnesota Historical Society, vol. 1. "He was the son of Bar- 
tholomew Faribault, who was born in Paris, France, and who be- 
came an eminent jurist in that country, but emigrated in ITSi, to 
Canada, and held office there until the downfall of the French 
dominion in America. 

"His son, the subject of this sketch, was born in Canada. At the 
age of 17 he entered on mercantile pursuits, at Quebec, and re- 
mained until 1796, when he yielded to his adventurous and active 
disposition and entered the Indian trade, engaging in John Jacob 
Astor's "North- Western Fur Company," as an agent. He was sent 
to Mackinac first, and soon after came to the upper Mississippi 
river, and after a brief stay at a post near the mouth of Des Moines 
river, became a resident of wliat is now Minnesota. He carried on 
a trade with the Indians for about half a century, the last forty 
years on his own account. He married in 1814 a half-breed daugh- 
ter of Major Hanse, then superintendent of Indian ailairs. Mr. Far- 
ibault espoused the cause of the United States, during the war of 
1812, and lost many thousand dollars thereby, as well as narrowly 
escaping with his life on several occasions. He labored all his life 
to benefit the red man, teach him agriculture and the arts of indus- 
try, and how to protect his interests. He had an unbounded influ- 
ence over many of them; his advice was never disregarded. He was 
prominent at all the treaties and councils and rendered the United 
States many valuable services." 



36 BISTOIiY I IF 

lu an address delivered bj' Gen. Sibley in 1856, we find the 
following further facts, in relation to Mr. Faribault. "He removed 
to this country in 1708. His career in this region was marked with 
more of adverse fortune, than usually occurs, even in the perilous 
life of an Indian trader. Shortly after the close of the war with 
Groat Britau, he was robbed by the Winnobagoes. at Prairie du 
Chien, of a large stock of goods, for which he never received any 
remuneration. Some years subsequently he fixed his residence 
upon Pikes Island, near Fort St. Anthony (now Snelling) and had 
barely established himself in his vocation of trader, when he was 
forced, by the Mandate of the Commandant of the Fort, to abandon 
his buildings and betake himself with his movable ])roperty to the 
bottom land on the east side of the Mississippi, where he erected 
new tenements. The following spring, the water, which was un- 
usually high, carried otf his houses and live stock, he and his family 
escaping in boats, by means of which he was fortunately enabled 
to save his goods and furs from destruction. Still undiscouraged, 
he built a house at the point now known as Mendota, where he 
resided many years, except during the winter months, when he as- 
sumed charge of his trading post at Little Rapids, on the Minnesota 
river. He acquired a considerable fortune though having met with 
so many reverses." 

In person, Mr. Faribault was below the medium height, of 
prepossessing appearance and of much dignity and franlvhess. It 
is said of him that he was a gentleman of the old French school, of 
Parisian style and of great affability and urbanity of manners and 
that, notwithstanding his long residence among savages and at the 
out post of civilization, in the far northwest, he never lost his ac- 
complishments and character of a well bred gentleman. It appears 
from a letter received from his grandson, that Mr. Faribault, in 
very early days, in company with General John C. Fremont and 
General Sibley, visited this region of country, on an exploring and 
hunting expedition, and that they were near what is now the local- 
ity of Blue Earth City, for some days. He lived to a great age and 
spent the last years of his eventful life with his sons, at Fairbault, 
in Rice county, in this State. He died Aug. 20th, 1860, and was at 
the time of his death, the oldest white resident of what is now Min 
nesota. Our county is indeed worthily named and its people should, 
some day, erect an appropriate memorial, in honor of him whose 
name the county bears. 

A brief notice of Alexander Faribault, the oldest and most 
prominent of the sons of Jean Baptiste Faribault, may be of inter- 
est. In a letter from a friend, who, at the writer's request, visited 
Mr. Faribault, we find the following statements: "He was born at 
Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, in 1806. He is one-half French blood. 




ALEXAXDEK 1- AKIHAULT. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY. MINNESOTA. 37 

one-fourth Scotch and one-fourth Sioux Indian. He settled at Port 
Snelling in 1819, and removed to Faribault (Rice County) in 1853, 
where he still resides (December 12, 1871). He is the father of ten 
children, seven of whom are now living He possesses a good busi- 
ness education and speaks the English language very correctly. 
Since his removal to Faribault, he has adopted the manners and 
customs of the whites and is a good citizen, public spirited and gen- 
erous to a fault, and has ever taken an active and lively interest in 
the growth and prosperity of Faribault, which was named for him. 
Mr. Faribault is quite actively engaged in business, and owns one 
of the best flouring mills in Faribault, which was built by him some 
eight years ago at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars. His wife 
is a full blood, of the Dakota, or Sioux tribe of Indians, and still 
retains the dress and customs of her tribe. Mr. Faribault was chief 
of the Wabasha band of Sioux, up to the time of his settlement in 
Faribault." 

It appears that Mr. Faribault once visited this region of 
country. It is stated in the history of Rice county, Minnesota, that 
he, "in the spring of 1833, followed the Indians south, to their hunt- 
ing grounds, located in the present county of Faribault. (Should 
have added Martin.) The place had an Indian name signifying 
chained lakes." 

He was a member of the second territorial legislature, being 
one of the representatives of legislative district number seven. 

He died November 28, 1882. 

The following tribute to his memory was written by one who 
knew him well. 

"He was a man of the kindliest feelings, the most inflexible in- 
tegrity and an eveness of temper, which was seldom ruffled. A man 
more universally beloved and respected has never departed from 
among us." 

The county being now bounded and named, we shall proceed to 
relate 

THE STORY OP THE FIRST SETTLER. 

Moses Sailorwas the first permanent settler of Faribault county. 
He was born in Monroe county, state of Ohio, in the year 1808, and 
was married at the age of twenty-four years. He has always been 
a farmer by occupation. Immediately after marrying he emigrated 
to Elkhart county, Indiana, which was then quite a new and sparce- 
ly settled country. Here he continued to reside for twenty-two 
years. His wife died in 1849, leaving him with nine children. In 
the fall of the year 1854, he emigrated, with his family, to Chicka- 
saw county, Iowa, where he took up quarters for the winter, in the 
village of Bradford. Finding that the country there had already 
been mainly taken up and, as he says, "Not being new enough to 



38 BfSTOHY OF 

suit his pioneer tastes." and desirin;? to get lands for liis boys as 
well as a home for himself, he concluded to prospect further, as soon 
as the weather would permit in the spring. Having heard very 
favorable accounts of the territory of Minnesota, he. near the first 
of April, 1855, in company with Jamas Little and John Love, carry- 
ing their guns, provisions and blankets, started on foot from Brad- 
ford, on an exploring expedition into Minnesota. After a day's 
journey, neither roads nor settlements existed, but striking out 
boldly into the wilderness, they directed their course by the aid of 
a pocket compass and a map. for the head waters of the Blue Earth 
river, as that stream was somewhat indefinitely laid down on the 
maps of that time. The first point at which they struck the Blue 
Earth river, was on the east branch, about two miles east of the site 
of Blue Earth City. Here they stopped and built a fire on the eighth 
day of April, at about eleven (11) o'clock in the forenoon. Leav- 
ing Mr. Little here. Mr. Sailor and Mr. Love proceeded across the 
prairie for the west branch of the river, to examine the timber and 
lay of the country. They reached the west branch on section twen- 
ty, in town 102. range 27. as was indicated by the section stakes and 
quite near where Mr. Sailor subsequently took liis "claim." 

After prospecting for a few hours and being much pleased with 
the country, they returned to Mr. Little and then all proceeded to 
the junction of the two branches of the river, afterwards known as 
"the forks," near which they were so fortunate as to find a small, 
rough log cabin, on the north bank of the stream. It was very 
rudelj' built, quite low and not more than ten by twelve feet in size, 
and had evidently been built as a mere temporary shelter. 

This cabin had been erected by one Thomas Holmes, of 
Shakopee, a famous explorer and town-site locator, in the early 
days of the territory of Minnesota. He was in this region in 1854. 
and erected this cabin, with the intention of making a claim of the 
land adjoining, with a view of eventually laying out a town in the 
vicinity. This he never did, however, but went so far as to employ 
two men. whose names are now forgotten, to go upon the land and who 
occupied this cabin a short time. But Mr. Holmes not coming with 
provisions, as agreed, they returned to Shakopee and the project 
of laying off a town was given up by him. This cabin was the first 
advance made in the building of a human habitation, on the capacity 
and architectural style of an Indian tepee. It was the first house 
erected in the county. To return to our companj', it being now 
near night, they concluded to camp here. This country at the time, 
presented a very favorable aspect. The snow of which there 
seemed to have been but little during the winter, had all disap- 
peared. 



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MOSES SAILOK, 
The First Settler. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 39 

The ground was dry and the grass just starting. The streams 
were very low and easily forded. A bright, warm sun, cloudless 
skies and a mild and balmy atmosphere, welcomed our explorers to 
this new land. 

The next morning they started northward to Mankato, exploring 
the timber and adjacent prairies and camped in the evening near 
Jackson's lake, in Blue Earth county. The next day they reached 
Mankato, which they found to be a small village of some fifteen 
houses, large and small, and a frontier hotel, where they stopped. 
This town had been laid out some three years before. Here they 
learned that it was currently reported that the Winnebago Indians, 
who were soon to be removed from their location in the more north- 
ern part of the territory, were to be located upon a "Reservation" 
on the head-waters of the Blue Earth river, in Faribault county. 
Should this occur, our pioneers would, of course, have to abandon 
any intention of settling in this county. They then proceeded to 
prospect the country for a few days on the Blue Earth, Maple and 
Cobb rivers, in Blue Earth county, with which they were highly 
pleased. At this time there were but a few scattered settlers in 
Blue Earth county and but one small village — Mankato. At an 
election held in that county, in the fall of this year, but eighty-six 
votes were polled. There were but a few settlers in Freeborn 
county, and this county and all the territory west, and northwest 
was vacant. 

Being entirely satisfied with the country, our company returned 
by their former route, through this county to Bradford and deter- 
mined to remove into Blue Earth county, immediatly in the vicinity 
of Mankato. In pursuance of this conclusion, Mr. Sailor, on or 
about the 8th day of May, started from Bradford with his family 
of children consisting of five sons, Jacob, Able, Daniel, William 
and Manuel and three daughters, Esther, Amanda and Roxina, all of 
whom subsequently remained here as residents of the county. He 
was accompanied by one Solomon Myers and Archibald Morris and 
family. They travelled in covered wagons heavily loaded with house- 
hold goods and provisions, each wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen, 
the great motive power of new countries. They had decided to settle 
somewhere on the Maple river, in Blue Earth county, and the route 
they travelled lay by Clear lake, in Iowa, Walnut lake and Minne- 
sota lake, in this county. This country as before intimated was 
then a trackless wilderness, no roads, or bridges, no human habita- 
tions and the "trail" made by Mr. Sailor and his company, was the 
first wagon track made in the county, by any settler. They stopped 
on the Maple river, about ten miles from Mankato, where Mr. 
Sailor left the company in camp and proceeded to Mankato. Here 
he found that the Indians had selected their Reservation in Blue 



40 HISTOHY OF 

Earth county. He then concluded to return and settle on the head- 
waters of the Blue Earth, in this county, but Mr. Morris decided 
not to accompany him and remained in Blue Earth county a short 
time. Mr. Sailor accompanied by Mr. Myers travelled on his re- 
turn by the route he had taken when prospecting, there being no 
track, or road however, and on the twenty-fifth day of May, near 
noon, he had reached his jouney's end and stopped on the west half of 
the southwest quarter of section twenty, which with the south half 
of the southeast quarter of section nineteen, adjoining, all in town- 
ship one hundred and two, of range twenty seven, he determined 
to claim. 

On locating Mr. Sailor proceeded to break up about five acres 
of land, which he planted to corn and potatoes, camping in the 
meantime, in his wagon and a large tent, which he had brought 
with him. 

This sod corn produced plenty of "roasting ears,'' and fodder 
suflScient for one horse and a dozen hogs during the succeeding 
winter. The potatoes yielded abundantly and were of a superior 
quality. After getting in his crop, he proceeded to erect a log 
house. This building was eighteen by twbntyfour feet and one 
story high and was completed in about a week, except the roof, 
which was partly covei'ed by the tent cloth. And this was the 
second house in this county. 

Provisions now getting scarce, Mr. Sailor went about 120 miles 
into Iowa, for a supply. He was gone some twelve days and on 
his return he finished up his house, putting on a "shake" roof. 
This old house long since disappeared, but it was once the head- 
quarters of the county— the only hotel, or stopping place, in a vast 
region for sometime — the first resort of new comers — the scene of 
many a hospitable entertainment and of many a frontier dance and 
social gathering in the early days. The boys set to work to break 
up some ten acres more of land in the early summer and a small 
additional tract was broken in October, which Mr. Sailor says did 
not prove valuable, as the sod instead of rotting, dried in tough 
strips and pieces like old sheep skins and lay about for some three 
or four j^ears. He says he knows more about "breaking" now, 
than he did then. 

During the year many Indians, sometimes as many as two 
hundred, or three hundred, in a company, would call on Mr. Sailor, 
generally wanting tobacco, sugar, pork and sometimes "firewater," 
which latter article he never let them have. In fact the country 
was full of small bands of roving Indians, who were engaged in hunt- 
ing and fishing and sometimes on the war-path, but he says they 
were always peaceable and well disposed towards him. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 41 

In those days he says game and fur-bearing animals were very 
plenty, especially wolves, foxes, mink, otter and elk, though but 
few deer. There were squirrels, rabbits, gophers, prairie chickens, 
geese, ducks, cranes, some few black bear, panthers, wild cats, 
wood chucks, musk rats and skunks, and the lakes and streams 
were stocked with fish. He further says that on his arrival he found 
no buffalo, but observed a stamping or herding ground near the 
state line, where a large number of buffalos had stopped during the 
preceding winter. During the year the health of himself and fam- 
ily was very good, and the weather until winter set in, unusually 
IDleasant. 

He has continued to reside on the land he first took up. His 
farm has been largely imjiroved and he has long since erected a 
comfortable frame house and large barn. Mr. Sailor is of medium 
stature, well built and has black hair and a long dark beard, now 
well sprinkled with gray; dark eyes and dark complexion, and in 
his prime was a man of great muscular power and endurance— hard 
working and courageous. He belongs to that race of hardy adven- 
turous pioneers, known only in the far west, who have the courage 
to abandon the advantages of old settled countries and go upon the 
extreme frontier, or plunge into the wilderness and amid want and 
hardships and privations, surrounded by many dangers, open up the 
ways of settlement and civilizatioD. 

He remarried some years ago (1869), and is passing his declin- 
ing years in ease and comfort, owing no man aaything, strictly 
honest in his dealings, hosjDitable and a Jackson democrat. In the 
early days of the county, he served the public well and faithfully 
for some years as County Commissioner. But he now takes no in- 
terest in politics, or public affairs, except to vote. He says he has 
no ambitions to gratify and hates turmoil and strife. May the even- 
ing of his days be cloudless, and his sun of life set in tranquility and 
peace, preluding a still brighter day that may break for him on the 
other shore. 

Since writing the above sketch, Mr. Sailor departed this life. 
He died February 14, 1896. 

OTHER SETTLERS AND VISITORS OF 1855. 

A short time after Mr. Sailor had located, Austin R. Nichols and 
Harry G. Roberts, called upon him, having followed his wagon 
track from the north. 

In a letter to the writer Mr. Nichols says, his and Robert's act- 
tual residence (or settlement) dates June 8th, and that Mr. E. Crosby 
came in a few days after their settlement. 

These persons located in town 104, range 28, now Winnebago 
city township. 



42 BISTOllY OF 

Mr. Archibald Morris, having concluded to follow Mr. Sailor 
arrived about this time. In June also came Henry T. Stoddard and 
Newel Dewey, and selected claims. As they had only come to look 
out the land, they remained but a short time, but about the first of 
November following, Mr. Stoddard returned, accompanied by his 
wife and his father, Mr. Dewey and Henry R. Walker. They all 
settled in town 103, range -9, now Verona. 

A man by the name of White, with whom Mr. Sailor had become 
acquainted on the Cedar river, in Iowa, came to the county with his 
wife and son, about the first days of ,Iuue, and took a claim near 
W^alnutlake, in town 103, range 25. He erected a "shanty," broke 
up several acres of land and planted a few potatoes, but soon went 
back to Iowa. He returned in the fall and liarvestcd his crop — some 
fourteen bushels— and brought them to Mr. Sailor. At this time he 
discovered that he had taken his claim on a school section and could 
not hold it. He left the country again and never returned. 

Benjamin Gray and family and Aaron Mudge and family, be- 
came residents of the county this year. Orlow Webster. James L 
McCrery, J. G. Whitford, W. H. Furness and Rufus Nichols, visited 
the county and selected claims, and the next year brought in their 
families and remained. James .lohnson was among the settlers of 
this year. Alexander Johnson visited the county but did not remain. 
The next year he returned and became a permanent resident. 

In the latter part of August. Levi Billings. Sr., and AlWert Bill- 
ings, John Boon and his sons Nelson and William and Crawford W. 
Wilson passed through the county and called on Mr. Sailor. Mr. 
Wilson returned in the fall with his family, accompanied by Jacob 
Miller, and took a claim in town 101. range 27, now Elmore. 

Mr. Billings, Sr., and one Dickinson and Rufus Clark, all resi- 
dents of Iowa, had for a number of seasons i^revious to this, been in 
this county hunting buffalo calves and elk, which they shipped to 
Chicago, Illinois, and sold at large prices. Mr. Billings was 
thoroughly acquainted with the country and determined to locate a 
town near the "forks" of the Blue Earth river, either on the same 
ground, or in the vicinity of the present location of Blue Earth City. 
In pursuance of this design, in the autumn of this year, he sent in 
a number of teams loaded with jjrovisions and the irons and castings 
for a saw mill, which he designed to erect near the forks, on the east 
branch of the Blue Earth, the next spring. With these loads came 
Albert Billings, Levi Billings, Jr., William M. Scott and one Rouse. 
Several of these parties designed to remain here during the winter, 
but for some cause, after engaging Messrs. Gray and Mudge, to get 
out the mill timbers during the winter, which they did, they all 
returned to Iowa, all purposing to come again to the county in the 
spring. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 43 

Owing to various unfavorable circumstances, Mr. Billings' inten- 
tion of laying off a town and erecting a mill was never carried out, and 
the timbers, designed for the mill, were subsequently used for a 
bridge across the east branch of the Blue Earth river, near Blue 
Earth City, and was the first bridge across that stream. 

During this autumn, Henry Schuler, also, made a flying visit to 
the county, and was so well jjleased with the country that he returned 
the next spring. On his return, an accident occurred to him, which 
nearly cost him his life. He had selected a, claim across the Blue 
Earth river, west of Stoddard's, where he was stopping. The water 
being very high at the breaking up in the spring, he had constructed 
a rude raft of logs, on which he passed back and forth to his work 
on his claim. On one occasion, some time in March, when far out in 
the stream, his raft swamped and he went down, but fortunately 
caught hold of some limbs and tops of small trees. After a long 
struggle in the water, which was very cold, swimming, and wading 
to his neck, he reached the west bank, nearly exhausted. He rested 
a moment, but found he should freeze to death, very soon, as the 
wind was very cold. He could not re-cross the stream and there 
were no residents on the west side. He must keep moving, and as 
there was no other way of saving his life, he started northward, but 
was compelled to wade, or swim, a number of streams, until at length 
he reached a house, near Vernon, in Blue Earth county. He was so 
worn out and chilled, that he could not have gone a mile further. 
Here he recuperated somewhat and then went to Mankato. At 
Stoddard's, as Schuler did not return, it was concluded he had been 
drowned and Stoddard proceeded at once to Mankato also, where 
was the nearest blacksmith shop, to have some grappling hooks 
made to drag the river for Schuler's body. Stoddard had arrived 
at the shop and had just given his order, for the hooks, which were 
to be made at once, when suddenly Schuler stepped into the shop ! 
The hooks were not needed. 

The names above given include all those, so fa.r as the writer has 
been able to learn, after the most careful inquiry, who settled in the 
county, or visited it with the intention of locating here, in 1855. 

The list of actual settlers is very short. 

It is curious to observe, as we proceed with this history, how 
and when, the men who have taken a large part in the public affairs 
of the county and in its gi-owth and development, appeared here 
upon the scenes of their life work. And it is worthy of record, as a 
valuable historic fact, that this county has been fortunate, beyond 
most others, in the character of its inhabitants generally from the 
beginning. With but rare exceptions, they have ever been an intel- 
ligent, law-abiding and industrious people. Among them too, even 
from the earliest years, have been quite a number of men of more 



44 HISTOIiY OF 

than ordinary ability and of very liberal education in the schools 
and professions. And these facts have had their legitimate results, 
apparent on every hand. 

PRODUCTS AND IMPROVEMENTS. 

Notliing more than a few garden vegetables and some sod corn 
were raised during the year and the improvements made, consisted 
only of a few log cabins and some acres of breaking. The winter 
set in about the fourteenth day of December. The snows fell deep 
and the cold became severe and the year closed in a hard winter. 

The monotony in the lives of the few lonely residents here during 
that winter, was broken occasionally by visits among themselves and 
the Indians favored them with a few calls, which, however, were 
never returned But very important events were near at hand, as 
will be seen in the next chapter. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 45 



CHAPTER II. 

A. D. 1856. 

The year 1856 was an eventful and ever memorable one in the 
history of this county. The record of its events reads lilte a 
romance. 

While during tlie winter of 1855-6, the few settlers here were 
living quietly awaiting the events of the future, and not knowing 
what was in store for them, far away from the borders of the 
county, plans were being laid by men who had never been within 
its limits, which were greatly to affect its future and control the 
lives and shape the destinies of many people. 

The first important matter of the year demanding our attention 
was the project of certain persons whom we shall name, the 

TOWN-SITE PIONEERS. 

On a cold stormy night in the last days of January 1856, James 
B. Wakefield, Henry P. Constans, Spier Spencer and Samuel V. 
Hibler, with several others, whose names are not important to this 
history, were assembled in a small store by a warm stove, in the 
town of Shakopee, in Scott county, Minnesota. All were poor in 
purse, but in youth, health and courage, were rich and hopeful. 

This was a year ever memorable in Minnesota of inflated prices 
of land and of wild speculations. Immigrants had been coming 
into the territoiy in great numbers and for several years past great 
improvements had been made and fortunes acquired in a day, by 
speculators in lands, town-sites and corner lots. The pros- 
pects for the year just beginning were very flattering. The con- 
versation of this small company turned upon these interesting sub- 
jects and the project was proposed of striking out somewhere and 
founding a city. Others were doing this very thing and were 
rapidly acquiring wealth and why should they not do the same? 
The company was "impecunious" it was true, but what of that — 
"where there is a will there is a way." So it was then and there 
agreed to go forth into the wilderness and find a suitable place for 
a town-site, survey and plat it and settle down as permanent citi- 
zens and build a town. Speculation was not the sole motive of this 
project. A desire to secure permanent locations, the establishment 
of business and to contribute their mite, toward the building up 



46 HISTORY OF 

and development of the country, as well as the battering of their fin- 
ancial condition, induced this determination. 

The first intention was to go into Freeborn countj', but on ex- 
amining the map of southern Minnesota, the valley of the Blue 
Earth river, fixed the attention of the company The buffalo and 
elk hunter, the trapper, the Indian and the explorer, had already 
told their stories, of the beauty and fertility of the Blue Earth 
valley. Thomas Holmes, heretofore mentioned, had talked in 
glowing language of the forks of the Blue Earth river, as an eligi- 
ble location for a town and so to the head-waters of the Blue Earth 
river, our company decided to go. 

The winter had been long and cold. It was now the beginning 
of February and the snow lay twenty inches deep on the level 
and great drifts were piled in every direction, but what are such 
difiicultes to western energy, bent on great projects? 

Our little company nothing daunted, hired one Huffman, with 
his team and sled, which might have been named the Argo, and 
gathered together a few provisions, consisting of flour, pork, 
beans, some culinary utensils and a ten gallon keg of a peculiar 
fluid extract of rye, which latter article had been recommended by 
solicitous friends, as a valuable medicine in cases of frost-bites, 
snake-bites, chills, or general prostration, and well armed with 
guns, pistols and plenty of ammunition, they started for the forks of 
the Blue Earth, across a trackless region, like the Argonauts in 
pursuit of the golden fleece, across unknown seas. 

The cold was intense and the roads, where there were any. were 
blockaded. South of Mankato no roads existed then and after a 
tedious journey, on the 6th day of February. 1856, our company 
near evening crossed the lands where Blue Earth City now stands, 
and proceeded about a mile further south, to the cabin of Moses 
Sailor, the first settler, whose hospitality they claimed for the 
night. 

Having travelled all day over trackless prairies, plunging 
through deep snow drifts, sometimes breaking the way for the 
team, our pioneers were well nigh exhausted and they enjoyed the 
hearty welcome, the warm fire, the corn bread and bacon of the first 
settler. Having fully explained their designs to Mr. Sailor, the 
next morning our pioneers, with Mr. Sailor in the lead, entered 
upon the lands where the future city was to be built and Mr. Sailor, 
knowing the ground well, pointed out to them in glowing language, 
the beauty and adaptability of the location for a town-site. But few 
words are necessary with men of business and it was forthwith 
decided, here on the north-half of section seventeen in township one 
hundred and two of range twenty-seven, to found the town. This 
decided they were shown the small log cabin spoken of in the pre- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 47 

ceding chapter in which thsy stored their goods and took up their 
abode for the joresent. 

On the following day Wakefield and Spencer started out with 
the team, on their return to Shakopee, leaving Constans and Hibler 
to hold possession of the country. 

The weather, as before intimated, was cold and the snows deep, 
but in all countries "business is business" and delays are said to be 
dangerous. Certain matters of great importance required immedi- 
ate attention and hence the hurried return of Wakefield and Spen- 
cer. The Eden of Minnesota had been found, a town was to be 
built, a county organized, a county seat located. The territorial 
legislature was then in session at St. Paul, the capital, and thither 
Mr. Wakefield proceeded. 

Constans and Hibler were left alone and went to work to render 
themselves as comfortable as possible in their cabin. Their usual 
amusements were chopping wood and carrying it up the steep bank 
of the river, to their cabin, keeping fire and cooking their victuals. 
Frequently informal visits would be made to Mr. Sailor's, where 
they would get a warm meal, which visits would be kindly returned 
by Mr. Sailor in a day or two, and these courtesies were usually, 
according to the strict etiquette of the times, rendered mellow and 
agreeable, by "a little something to take."' All times have their 
follies and fashions and there are many things easily excusable, in 
the ways and manners of the pioneers of a new country. 

Thus the time passed until about the seventh day of March, 
vrhen Mr. Wakefield returned with a pocketful of official commissions 
and accompanied by another new settler, George B. Kingsley. Mr. 
Spencer did not return. During Mr. Wakefield's absence, he secured 
the passage of an act by the legislature, dated February 23rd, 1856, 
organizing the county of Faribault, of which the following is a 
copy: 

ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY. 



AN ACT TO ORGANIZE THE COUNTY OF FARIBAULT AND TO ESTABLISH 
THE COUNTY SEAT OF SAID COUNTY. 



(Passed February 23, 1S56.) 



Section 1.— Be it enacted by the legislative assembly of the territory 
of Mianesota: That the county of Faribault be, and the same is hereby 
declared to be,. an organized county, and invested with all the rights, privileges 
and immunities to which all organized counties in this territory are entitled 
by law. 

Sec. 2— That "Blue Earth City," situated between the forks of the Blue 
Earth river, as laid out and named by James B. Wakefield and others, be and 
the same is hereby declared to be the temporary county seat of said county and 



48 EIS'J'OllY OF 

the county commissioners to be appointed, as hereafter provided, shall have full 
power to locate the county building thereon. 

Sec. 3.— That the Governor shall appoint and commission three suitable 
persons, the same being ([ualitled voters of said county, to be a board of county 
commissioners for said county, with full power and authority to perform all 
acts and discharge all duties devolving upon the board of county commissioners 
of any organized county in this territory. And that he shall also appoint and 
commission one slierilf, a register of deeds, and two justices of the peace for 
said county, who shall liold their oiUces respectively until their successors shall 
have been duly elected and (lualitied. 

Skc. 4.— The said county of Faribault shall be attached to the county of 
Ulue Earth for Judicial purposes. 

Sec. 5.— That at the next general election, the inhabitants of said county 
shall determine by vote, where the county seat of said county shall be locat.'d 
and all male inliabltants of said county, over the age of twenty-one years, who 
have acquired an actual residence in said county, shall have the right to vote 
on the location of said county seat. 

Sisc. 6— This act shall talce effect from and after its passage. 

OUR FIRST MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATURE. 

This county was first represented in the legislature, after it was 
named and its boundaries defined in 1855, by Charles E. Flandrau, 
of Traverse d' Sioux, a lawyer, in the council, and by Parsons K. 
Johnson, of Mankato, a tailor and Aurelius F. De La Vergne, of 
Le Sueur, a shoemaker, and Geo. A. McLeod, of Traverse d' Sioux, a 
merchant, in the house of representatives, they appearing as the 
representatives of the tenth district (of which this couifty was a 
part) in the seventh territorial legislature which assembled Jan- 
uary 2d, 1856. 

THE FIRST COUNTY OFFICERS. 

In pursuance of the act above mentioned, his excellency, W. A. 
Gorman, then territorial governor, appointed and commissioned 
the officers provided for in the act as follows: 

For County Commissioners — James B. Wakefield, Chairman; 
Henry T. Stoddard, Moses Sailor. 

For Register of Deeds — Samuel V. Hibler. 

For Sheriff — Henry P. Constans. 

For Justices of the Peace — George B. Kingsley and Newal 
Dewey. 

The commissions of all these officers bear date Feb. 25th, 1856. 
They all (lualified, except Mr. Dewey, and entered upon the dis- 
charge of their official duties, which, it should be remarked, were 
not specially burdensome, nor were the emoluments great. The 
county was now organized, the county seat located and officers 
ready for business. 

It is true that at the time of the organization of the county, 
there were not probably more than fifteen voters in the county, nor 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 49 

was Blue Earth City in existence when the county seat was located 
there, nor was there any county business to be done, but these were 
small matters to men of large and liberal views and comprehensive 
purposes. All these things were to come and these energetic 
pioneers looking into the future went ahead in these little formal 
matters to prepare the way. 

It is a little remarkable, that no record now exists of any meet- 
ing of this board of county commissioners during the year 1856. 
It is well known, however, that the board took no action worthy 
of historic record. 

But to resume the narrative: our pioneers, now four of them, 
Wakefield, Constans, Hibler and Kingsley, all living in the small 
cabin, decided that their quarters were too small and uncomfortable 
and determined at once to build a larger house. This they proceeded 
to do and, after a week or two of hard work and the assistance of 
the Sailor boys the result was, "The Elkhorn," erected on the 
proposed town-site of Blue Earth City. It was the first house on 
the town site. The building was constructed of rough logs and was 
very roomy, being sixteen by twenty-two feet, one story high, large 
chimney, puncheon floor and one civilized window. As soon as com- 
pleted they removed into this commodious tenement and it became 
the general rendezvous, and head -quarters of the county for some 
time. 

Spring set in about the middle of March and the snow soon 
entirely disappeared, but it was still cold, and right about this time 
we reach in the history of these pioneers, one of those "times that 
try men's souls." Provisions had run very low and our Sailor friends 
had also exhausted their store. The weather continued cold — the 
ice in the streams was breaking up — the waters getting high and 
traveling was impossible. Day after day even weeks passed but no 
one came bringing provisions, nor could anyone go after a supply. 
Starvation stared the company in the face. They were at last 
reduced to buckwheat "slapjacks," the flour being stirred up with 
water, and as a rarity occasionally seasoned with ground cinnamon 
bark. This was the only article of food for some weeks, except 
that on several occasions some wild game — a squirel or a rabbit^ 
was shot by the nimrods of the party. 

And to add greatly to their miseries, their stock of tobacco 
became entirely exhausted — not a crumb left. Oh for one chew! 
just one smoke! was the repeated exclamation. Barks and roots 
were tried but gave no relief — pockets were worn out with the in- 
voluntary search for the weed and in the silent hours of the night 
weird dreams came to them of jolly "plugs" of pure "Cavendish," 
great smoking Meerschaums and Royal Havanas, dancing in the 
air. How strange that people will subject themselves to such 
habits I 



50 UIST()j;y OF 

During this trying time, however, an event occurred which 
threw the company into great excitement — a tine fat coon was dis- 
covered in a tree top, at a short distance! Here now was some- 
thing of real importance. It had of course to be taken by some 
means — "they were out of meat." It was one of those great emer- 
gencies, where presence of mind, steady nerves and skill alone 
triumph. So the mighty hunter Constans, by far the best marks- 
man in the party and a dead shot, was deputed to bring down the 
coon. He approached the game with that silence, stealth and 
cunning, known only to the skilled hunter. He took deadly aim 
with a rest, he tired — the coon did not stir. Quickly loading again 
with great care and circumspection, he shot again but strange to 
say there w^ere no signs of trouble in that tree top. The coon did 
not say as Crockets did "ril come down." And now, alas, it was 
found that the shot were all exhausted. What was to be done? 
Our nimrod wore a vest, on which were some round buttons, out 
came his knife and off came the buttons — this thing was growing 
serious — no more fooling Mr. Coon. The gun was reloaded heavily. 
Mr. Constans concentrating his powers, took another deadly aim — 
fired and down came the coon and down also came the hunter. The 
gun killed, or nearly so, at both ends. It had kicked him fair on 
the nose, knocking him over, and that useful organ, being quite 
prominent, was badly smashed and dilapidated. But they got the 
coon and had a fat time. 

Life in Fairbault county during the times of which we write 
was not specially attractive and began to hang heavily upon our 
pioneers. No amusements — but few neighbors, no mails, nothing 
to do, except the cooking of their meals and carrying in their wood 
and water. Their stories had all been told a dozen times, inven- 
tion even was exhausted, no reading matter but that which had been 
read and re-read until it had become disgustingly stale. A vocal 
band was organized and much time spent in singing. Quiet games 
of cards were played, with no other purpose than to kill time, or as 
was often the fact to determine definitely who should bring in the 
next bucket of water, or back in the next load of wood. The last 
days of the month arrived and with it the occurrence of a great and 
long hoped for event. 

NEW SETTLERS APPEAR. 

Wm. M. Scott, Levi Billings Jr , Albert Billings and Zimri 
Butler, arrived from Iowa at this time, with a load of stores and 
provisions. Daniel L. Harrington. Levi Billings Sr., with Mrs. Bill- 
ings and Mrs. Scott, were several days behind, with another load of 
stores. This latter company, however, had got lost and wandered 
off to Walnut Lake, and not arriving as expected, a party consisting 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 51 

of J. M. Sailor, Constans, Scott, Albert Billings and Butler, went in 
search of them. They were found and brought in, except Mr. Bill- 
ings Sr. , after a number of days of terrible suffering from cold and 
hunger. Mr. Billings Si'., in feeble health and almost blind, when he 
found that they were lost, had hired an Indian whom they met, to 
bring him to the forks of the Blue Earth, to get assistance to bring 
in the others, but the Indian jiroved treacherous, or ignorant, and 
they wandered about some days and nights on the prairies, when at 
last he too arrived at Blue Earth City. A new order of things were 
now inaugurated. Mr. Billings and family took possession of the 
old cabin on the north bank of the river, until a new house could be 
built, while Mr. Scott and wife commenced housekeeping in the 
"Elkhorn," taking our four pioneers as boarders, the Elkhorn thus 
becoming the first boarding house in the city. 

We must here break the chain of this personal narrative, to re- 
late, in the order of time, a tragical event. 

THE FIRST HOMICIDE — A MYSTERY. 

"Blood has beea shed ere now i' the olden time, 
Ere humaa statute purged the general weal; 
Ay, and since too murders have been performed 
Too terrible for the ear." — Shakespeare. 

During the month of April. 1856, three young men came to Blue 
Earth City, remained a short time at the Elkhorn, and then pro- 
ceeded, by way of H. T. Stoddard's, in Verona, a settler of the pre- 
ceding year, where they remained several days, to the vicinity of 
Mapleton. 

Their names were J. C Ackley. a young merchant from Con- 
necticut, who had come west to Caledonia, in Houston county, in 
this state, and Frederick Fisher, who had been a clerk in a store at 
Caledonia for several years, and E. C. Young, a farmer and resi- 
dent of Houston county for some years. They were looking for land, 
desiring to take claims. Ackley took a claim somewhere on the 
Maple river and went to work. Fisher and Young concluded to look 
further, and, finally, returned to the house of Mr. Stoddard. 

After prospecting several days. Young took up a claim about a 
mile south of Stoddard's, and Fisher found a tract to suit him, about 
two-and a half miles northwest of Stoddard's, in town one hundred 
and four, of Range twenty-eight (now Winnebago City township). 
They boarded with Stoddard, and worked on their claims together, 
until Young accidentally sprained his right knee, very seriously, 
and was confined to the house for a week or more. During this 
time Fisher worked on his claim alone. 

On Friday, the day preceding the date of the death of Fisher, 
while Stoddard's family, including Young and Fisher, were at din- 



52 nisToii Y or 

ner. a number of Indians came to the house. The company com- 
prised a few Sioux, several Winnebagos and a half-breed of bad 
repute. It appears that these Indians, with quite a number of others, 
had a large camp near Fishers claim. 

While the Indians were staring in at the door and window, dur- 
ing the dinner, Fisher jokingly made a remark to one of the Indians, 
which greatly insulted him, but he did not, at the time, seem to 
specially resent the insult. Fisher went to work on his claim 
after dinner. About noon of the same day, three white men, named 
respectively Benson, Humphrey and Sinclair, also came to Stod- 
dard's, looking for land. They went away in the evening, going as 
they alleged to their boarding place, Tobias Miller's, just over the 
line in Blue Earth County, but returned the next Wednesday to 
Stoddard's, when Stoddard hired Benson and Humphrey, and Young 
hired Sinclair to work. During the afternoon the Indians returned 
to their camp. 

Fisher returned home in the evening as usual. The next morn- 
ing, Saturday, May 10th, Fisher, accompanied by one Brace, a 
boarder at Stoddard's and a claim holder, who was going in the same 
direction, some distance, started for his claim to split rails, taking 
his dinner, axe and wedges with him. Fisher did not return in the 
evening as usual, and after waiting until quite late, Stoddard and 
H. R. Walker on foot, and Young on horseback, went to Fisher's 
claim, in search of him, but found no traces of him. 

On Sunday morning, they with several others, went out again 
but found nothing of him, except the beetle and wedges. No rails 
had been split. It was then evident that Fisher had given up bis 
intention of splitting rails, or that something had happened to him 
on Saturday morning. It was suggested that he might have gone to 
Ackley's. for clean clothes, where he and Young had left their cloth- 
ing. But Fisher not returning on Monday, Young sent his hired 
man, Sinclair, to Ackley's place, to see if Fisher had been, or was 
then there. It appeared that he had not been at Ackley's and Ack 
ley returned with the messenger to Stoddard's, when another search 
was made for Fisher, but no further trace of him was found. 

The disappearance was unaccountable and foul play began to be 
suspected. The question arose, naturally, did he have any money 
with him "? It was known that he had a gold watch. Some persons 
alleged that he had considerable money, as much as three thousand 
dollars in gold. 

It was even said by some, that he had as much gold as would 
fill a shot bag. But others, who had the best opportunity of know- 
ing, said he did not have more than five dollars, if so much, and that 
Ackley had loaned him some money, at Austin, on their way coming 
west. Some days passed, but no tidings came of the missing man. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 53 

The man Benson then took Fisher's claim, on condition, that if Fisher 
appeared, the claim would be given up to him. 

Ten days residence on the land was required by law, at that 
time, and certain improvements, before title could be perfected. 
Benson completed the improvements and Fisher still not being 
heard from, Benson, Ackley and Young proceeded to the United 
States Land Olifice, then located at Brownsville, Houston County, in 
this state, and "proved up" on their several claims. Young ad- 
vanced the means to pay the Government for Benson's claim. Ben- 
son, after proving up, sold the land to Young for fifty dollars ad- 
vance on the cost. 

Young remained in Houston county until the last of August, 
when he returned to Stoddard's' and he became a iiermanent resi- 
dent of the county. In the meantime, and about the 10th day of 
June, or perhaps a little later, Fisher's body was found in a small 
ravine, on his claim, by Patrick H. Allen. Fisher had been mur- 
dered. It was plainly evident how it had been done. He had 
been stabbed twice in the neck — once in the side and once behind — 
and was thrown into the ravine and covered with dirt and leaves, 
lightly, and several small willow withes, sharpened at the ends, 
were bent over him, in the form of a bow, the ends being stuck into 
the ground. 

Mr. Allen immediately reported the finding of the body, when a 
small burial party, consisting of Mr. Allen, A. D. Mason, H. H. 
Bigelow, J. Roberts, T. Maxson, N. Dewey, H. T. Stoddard, H. 
R. Walker, J. M. Stow, the Rev. J. G. Whitford, most of whom 
were new settlers in the vicinity, repaired to the locality of the 
body, and buried the I'emains near by. 

It may be stated as a singular fact, that the gold watch, which 
Fisher owned, was still on his person, but his boots and hat were 
gone. Col. Samuel McPhail, of Caledonia, was subsequently ap- 
pointed administrator of the estate of Fisher, and the watch which 
had been placed in Stoddard's care, was, by order of the adminis- 
trator, delivered to Young and was sent to Fisher's brother, resid- 
ing in Rochester, N. Y. 

Suspicion attached to several persons, as the perpetrators of 
this foul murder, but the most careful and impartial investigation 
but proved that the suspicions could not be correct, and were but 
the suggestions of mistake, or malice. Within four months after 
the homicide, a committee of citizens carefully investigated the 
affair, and some four years afterwards, the grand jury of the 
county formally inquired into the case, through all the obtainable 
witnesses to the facts known, but neither the committee nor the 
grand jury could learn anything as to the murderer, or any ac- 
cessory to, or instigator of the crime. 



54 HlSTOnr OF 

Many circumstances connected with this sad affair, indicated 
that an Indian did the deed, probably the one offended by Fisher. 
Nearly a score of years have parsed away, but notwithstanding the 
old adage that, "murder will out," yet no further light has ever 
been thrown upon the horrible crime and the perpetrator will prob- 
ably never be known, until the great books shall be opened in the 
last day. The details of this case, have been given, as they were 
learned from those who knew most about it. 

In the spring of lt^74, being some years after the above article 
was written, a statement appeared in the Mankato Review, which 
was copied into the Blue Earth City Post, that a rumor was cur- 
rent to the effect that a short time before that date, a man had died, 
in Colorado, who, just before his death, confessed that he and an- 
other person had committed the murder of Fisher, at the instiga- 
tion of a person whom he did not name. Several weeks after 
the above statement was made, the Review said that it had learned 
that the person who was alleged to have made the confession and 
died — Tobias Miller — was alive and well and that "the whole thing 
proves to be onlj-^ a sensational story." 

In justice to Mr. Miller, it must be said, that there were never 
any suspicions, in the early days, that he had anything whatever 
to do with the crime, and no evidence that he was implicated in it 
has ever appeared since that time. 

The incidents attending this great crime are given so fully 
here, because it was the first known homicide occurring in the county 
and has always been a great mystery and, lastly, because at least 
two lives, besides that of poor Fisher, have been wrecked by asper- 
sions growing out of the event. 

And now to resume the story of our pioneers: Good weather 
had fairly set in, in May. Our company began to prospect the 
country and make their arrangements for laying otT the town and 
building certain houses, or pre emption shanties, which were neces- 
sary under the pre emption laws, to hold the town-site lands. 

THE FIRST MAIL SERVICE. 

The want of communication with the outside world was severely 
felt and it was determined to have, among the first things, regular 
weekly mail service between Blue Earth City and Mankato. The 
government was applied to and Mr. Kingsley was appointed post 
master — the first one in the county — and an arrangement was made 
with one Simon Dow. who had first come into the county, to carry 
the mail weekly, for a stipulated sum per trip, to be paid out of the 
receipts of the offices on the route and such additional sum as the 
settlers might be induced from time to time to contribute. This 
plan continued in force until late the next year, when the govern- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 55 

ment assumed the entire business of carrying the mails. The mail 
was carried on horseback most of the time and this means of com- 
munication proved a great convenience, as the first mail carrier was 
a man of a traflicing turn of mind and always returned from Man- 
kato loaded with coffee, tea, pork, cordials, tobacco and many other 
small articles of prime necessity. Passengers by this line "footed" 
it. but had the company of the mail carrier, who occasionally gave 
the passenger an opportunity to ride. The writer came into the 
county by this conveyance. 

SURVEYING THE TOWN SITE. 

Settlers now began to come into various parts of the county rapid- 
ly and locate. A number of claims were taken and cabins erected, and 
as the pleasant month of June arrived, the ground became settled 
and the great work of surveying the town-site was begun. 

Thomas Hood, of Shakopee, a first-class surveyor, was employed 
and a surveying corps was organized, consisting of Mr. Hood as 
chief, with Messrs, Kingsley, Constans, Hibler, and one Osgood, a 
new settler, as assistants, and Wakefield as a general advisory 
member. The surveying and staking out of the city required about a 
month's labor, and was completed in the first days of July. 

THE FIRST STORE. 

In the mean time and in the month of June, one Cornelius Gar- 
retson arrived with an assorted stock of merchandise, and proceeded 
to erect a hewed log house. This important building was erected 
on the southeast quarter of section seventeen (17), adjoining the 
town site; and was some twenty feet squai-e and one and one half 
stories high. It had, also, actually two floors, two windows, a 
counter and shelves. Here now was a house as was a house, and the 
style and finish were the subject of remarks throughout the whole 
settlement. Hei"e Mr. Garretson displayed his goods — an excellent 
assortment too — and this was the first store in the county. 

THE METROPOLITAN. 

And now our pioneers had established their town and had built 
various houses — log cabins. They had a store and a boarding house — 
the Elkhorn — and a weekly mail, and each of them had secured a 
"claim"' to a quarter section of land and the prospects were glow- 
ing. But there was one thing lacking to give character to the 
place — there was no regular hotel. Immigrants were coming in, 
land hunters were traversing the country, visitors were calling to 
see what a country this was, but there was no hotel. A consulta- 
tion was had. The enterprise was important and expensive. 
Money was scarce and town lots were not selling yet. Who would 
undertake this great work ? Here our friend Constans, with the 



56 HiHTonv or 

indoiuilublc energy and active industry which have always charac- 
terized him, came to the rescue. "Boys," said he, "I'll build and 
keep the hotel," But it was remarked that ho was not married 
and to keep a hotel re<|uired the supervision of a landlady as well 
as that of a landlord. "I'll manage that matter, ' said ho blushing 
profusely at the suggestion, as his mind doubtless reverted to a dark 
eyed Swiss girl, modest and neat, "The girl he left behind him." 

In the month of August the hotel was built. The main building 
was twenty by forty feet, with a wing in the rear, sixteen by 
twenty-two feet, and the whole building was one and one half stories 
high. The house was built of hewn logs and about three thousand 
feet of hardwood boards were used in the flooring and for other 
purposes, at a cost of one hundred dollars per thousand feet. The 
building was completed in the fall and named the Metropolitan. 
New York had its St. Nicholas, Washington its National, St. Paul 
its International, why should not Blue Earth City have its Metropol- 
itan ? In the fall Mr. Constans was married and fitted up and opened 
the hotel for the reception of guests. 

This house — the first hotel in the county — disappeared several 
years ago, but it long stood as a land mark of the earlj' days. 
Within its walls were born all the children of Mr. Constans, now all 
grown to manhood's years. 

It was the first home in this new land of the writer, and of many 
others, and many were the days, in the long ago, spent by him be- 
neath its hospitable roof, when the winter winds were fierce and cold 
and in those darker times of Indian troubles, when the ruthless sav- 
age went prowling along the frontiers, murdering and burning, this 
rough old log house was the last and best refuge in all the land. 

And here we shall leave these pioneers to be named hereafter as 
other.o, only incidently as they may be connected with this history. 
The thought maj- be stated here that little does the citizen of 
today, surrounded Vjy all the comforts and blessings of civilized life, 
know of the hardships, dangers and privations of those early years, 
and little too of the fortitude and courage with which they were 
borne by the first settlers, ever hoi^eful and confident in the rose- 
colored future. 

THE FIRST PUBLIC REL.IGIOL-.S SERVICES. 

We now proceed to relate a pleasant and memorable event — the 
preaching of the first sermon at Blue Earth City, and probably the 
first in the county. The morning of July 13, 1850. broke bright and 
clear over this new land. It was the Sabbath — the day of rest and 

worship. 

"But the .so\ind of the church-going bell 
These valleys and rocks never heard — 
Never sighed at the sound of a knell, 
Or siuiled when a .Sabbath appeiired !" — Coioper. 




THE mi; lKOI'< iLITAN, 
The First Hotel. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 57 

It was a day of peculiar loveliness. The wide, silent prairies 
were blooming with innumerable flowers, the neighboring forests 
and groves seemed more green than usual, and the summer air more 
balmy. Silence and peace rested like a blessing upon all nature, 
while the sun in a blue and cloudless sky, shone forth as the central 
glory and beneficence of the universe, the scenes reminding the be- 
holder of that far gone golden age, sung by the poets, when men led 
a quiet, pastoral life on the plains of the East — when peace and good 
will reigned supreme on the earth — when heaven and earth were 
nearer together and the Sons of Light came down to walk and hold 
converse with the sons of men. 

At such a time and amid such scenes, were the first religious 
services in Blue Earth City held. A small company, comprising a 
large majority of the settlers of the county, assembled about ten 
o'clock in the forenoon, in a shady grove on the plot of the young 
city. The preacher was the Rev. James G. Whitford, of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church — a plain unlettered man — sporting no high 
sounding titles, but possessing a heart full of zeal for the salvation 
of men — one of those good self-sacrificing men, who, ignoring a life 
of ease — the allurements of wealth and fame, go forth into tlie by- 
ways and hedges, and into the wilderness and amid toils and priva- 
tions, preach the blessed gospel of the Redeemer and — 

"Spend their sweat and blood and tears 
To cultivate Emmanuel's land." 

With reverend and uncovered heads the services commenced, and all 
joined in the simple but pathetic hymn of praise announced by the 
preacher, and then all bowed low as the humble prayer of thanks 
and invocation went up to the great white throne. The text, a part 
of the 16th verse of the first chapter of Second Peter — "For we have 
not followed cunningly devised fables" — was read. And then the 
preacher, in simple and earnest language, told the story of the Cross 
and pointed out the way of salvation and showed how these were 
not fables, cunningly devised, but the most blessed and important 
truths, which had in the course of all the ages, been proclaimed to 
man. The sermon ended, they all again united in a hymn of praise, 
and kneeling once more, the preacher poured forth an impassioned 
prayer to the God of nature and revelation, for the blessing and 
final salvation of all this little company, and then the benediction was 
pronounced and the first public services were ended. 

The reader may have stood beneath the mighty dome of St. 
Peters — he may have heard ten thousand voices unite in the praises 
of the Most High in that grandest Cathedral of all the earth, made 
by human hands, and may there have witnessed the most awe inspir- 
ing ceremonies of religious worship known among men, but here 



58 HISTORY OF 

was a grander Cathedral— nature's temple of the ever living God — a 
temple bounded only by the distant horizon and whose dome was the 
clear, blue summer skies — whose lloor was not made of the polished 
mosaics of art, but was the solid earth, clothed and garnished by 
nature. And here too, was a worship grand in its simplicity, af- 
fecting in its pathos und acceptable in its humility and sincerity. 

THE PIONEERS OF THE MINISTRY. 

But regular religious services were not yet established in the 
county. That work was left for the Rev. J. W. Powell and Rev. R- 
A. Judd, of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a little later the 
Rev. J. E. Conrad, of the Presbyterian Church, who soon after 
preached regularly in the county, and were the pioneers of the min- 
istrj' in this county. 

Mr. Judd died many years ago, having given his life to his 
country during the great rebellion. The others are yet living. 
And they still, as the years go by, continue to call men to repen- 
tance and a preparation for the life to come, and will doubtless labor 
on in this highest and holiest of all callings, whatever may betide, 
until the great Master shall say to each of them, it is enough, "Well 
done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy 
Lord." 

"The p;Uh of the just is as the shining li^'ht, 
That shineth, more and more, until the perfect day." 

CROPS. 

There was no harvest in this county in 1856. It is said that no 
wheat or oats were sown, or if any, so little that no account was 
taken of it. The principal crops raised during this year, were some 
seed corn and small patches of potatoes and a few garden vegetables. 
The great bulk of the provisions, flour, pork, beef, beans, corn meal 
ard other articles were imported, mainly from Iowa. 

And now next in the order of time, is the story of the foun- 
ders of 

WINNEBAGO CITY. 

In September, of this year, five energetic young men, then in 
St. Paul, moved by the spirit of the times and impelled much by the 
same motives which had actuated the founders of Blue Earth City, 
also conceived the idea of establishing a town somewhere in the 
great Territory of Minnesota. Their names were Andrew C. Dunn, 
Warren N. Dunham. Elijah H. Barritt, James Sherlock and Charles 
H. Parker. Having determined on this project, they at once pur- 
chased a team and outfit, and all except Mr. Parker, started out to 
find an eligible location. They laid their course for Lake Albert 
Lea, in Freeborn county, adjoining this county on the east, and ar- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 59 

rived there about the first of October. But on reaching that point 
they found that tlie only suitable location for a town had already 
been taken up by George Ruble and others. They endeavored to 
get an interest in this location, but failed. The question then arose 
to what point should they now direct their course? Mr. Dunn re- 
membered having met, during the summer of this year, at Mankato, 
Grover C. Burt and Hiram L. Young, who were at the time living 
on the Blue Earth river, in this county, and who had given him very 
glowing descriptions of the Blue Earth Valley and strongly invited 
him to visit this region. So they started for the Blue Earth, where 
they safely arrived and made inquiry for Mr. Young, whom they 
found living in a tent on the lands of Capt. H. H. Bigelow, adjoin- 
ing what is now the site of Winnebago City. Mr. Young and one 
B. K. Burt were then "claiming" the two quarter sections on which 
the village of Winnebago City was afterwards located, but on learn- 
ing that our company were desirous of founding a city, they sur- 
rendered their claims and took others. Our company camped with 
Mr. Young about six weeks, while making the claim and locating 
the town. The town was located upon the south-east quarter of 
section thirty-four and the south-west quarter of section thirty-five 
in town one hundred and four of Range twenty-eight west. 

The final surveys were made in January, 1857, by Messrs. Well- 
man and Johnson, civil engineers, of St. Paul, and the plats were 
filed soon after, in the office of the register of deeds of the county. 
Mr. Young having the logs hewed for a small house (12x14) was 
induced by the company to erect the house on the town- site, which 
was done in November and was occupied by an agent of Mr. Parker, 
with a small stock of goods during the winter of 1856-7. This was 
the first house in the town and the first store in the city. 

A hotel building next demanded attention. One Dr. W. N. 
Towndrow, assisted by the town proprietors, undertook this im- 
portant work. This structure was twenty by thirty-six feet and one 
and one-half stories high. The boards for the floor and roof — green 
basswood and elm — were purchased at Mankato, at an expense of 
about seventy-five dollars per thousand feet. The building, however, 
was not finished until the next year, but served a good purpose 
as a fort, during the Indian excitement, in the spring of 1857. 
A steam saw mill was also purchased in Chicago, by the com- 
pany during the year, but did not arrive until the following spring. 
The further history of this young city will be found in the his- 
torical sketch of Winnebago City township. 

Here now was another village, between which and Blue ICarth 
City there sprang up in after years, contests and rivalries like "The 
Wars of the Roses," and lasted a long time. No blood was shed, 
indeed, but in political figuring, bitter denunciations, heated con- 



60 niSTOIlY OF 

tests and prodigious blustering, resembled somewhat, on a small 
scale, the old wars of the houses of York and Lancaster. But the 
old feuds have now happily- passed away. 

THE FIRST ELECTION. 

On the second Tuesday, the 14th day of October, the tirst elec- 
tion in the county for civil officers occurred. It was held at Blue 
Earth City, the county seat. The whole county was then one election 
district. The question also of the permanent location of the county 
seat was voted upon as required by law, and resulted in the unani- 
mou.s choice of Blue Earth City. The judges of election were Moses 
Sailor, J. B. Wakefield and H. T. Stoddard. The whole number of 
votes cast was eighty-two. It seems that no votes were cast for 
members of the legislative council and house of representatives, in 
this county at this election County officers only were elected as 
follows: — 

For County Commissioncr.s — Moses Sailor, Crawford W. Wilson 
and William M. Scott. 

For Register of Deeds — James B. Wakefield. 

For Surveyor — Orville Kimball. 

It cannot now be determined whether any other county officers 
were elected at this election, or not, as no record of the election can 
now bo found. This was the year of the eighteenth presidential 
election, but as Minnesota was then but a territory, no vote was cast 
here for presidential electors. 

The presidential candidates were James Buchanan, democrat, 
John C. Fremont, republican and Millard Filmore "know-nothing." 
Mr. Buchanan was elected, but had only what is called a plurality 
popular vote. This was the first great contest of the new republi- 
can party and the election was an exciting one. The main issue be- 
tween the republicans and democrats was that of the further ex- 
tension of slavery. The great plank in the platform of the know- 
nothing, or American party, was that none but native Americans 
should be put in office. The real contest, however. M'as between 
the two former parties and various causes rendered it a lively one. 
A great principal was involved, in which the troubles in Kansas 
heretofore referred to, intensified the interest. An event had also 
occurred in Washington of such significance as to add fuel to the 
fires. In May of this year, on the floor of the U. S. senate chamber. 
Charles Sumner, senator from the state of Massachusetts — a noble 
and honored statesman, one of the foremost men of the age and a 
great champion of human rights, while sitting at his desk, was, 
because of .some words spoken in debate, brutally assaulted and 
beaten over his bare head until he fell to the floor insensible, gashed, 
bleeding and powerless, by a detestable coward named Brooks — a 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 61 

representative from South Carolina. It was a most infamous deed 
and without a parallel anywhere in history. But to return to our 
local election. It was as above stated the first in the county and we are 
happy to say it was a model election. Those were the days here 
of x'epublican (or if you choose democratic) simplicity and purity 
of the ballot box. There were no parties, nor partizan politics in- 
volved at this election. It was not preceded by "packed" caucuses 
in the townships. There were no county conventions managed by 
party wire pullers, or political demagogues, dictating for whom 
the people should vote by setting up candidates. There wei"e no 
country school house meetings and no riding up and down the 
county, canvassing the electors and extolling the vast abilities and 
immaculate virtues of one set of candidates and the prodigious 
villainy and utter incompetency of the other set. Office hunters 
and office hunting were unknown and the candidates were the free 
choice of the electors. Tlie honors of office were unsought and 
were borne by the recipients with modesty and diffidence. Blessed 
days were those, but never to return again. Alas! alas! how the 
times have degenerated! But we must now turn from these sub- 
jects to deeds of violence and death nearer home and recount the 

SECOND HOMICIDE. 

Samuel V. Hibler, the register of deeds of the county and one 
of the original town propietors, was holding the southwest quarter 
of section seventeen in township one hunderd and two, range twenty- 
seven, adjoining the town- site of Blue Earth City, as a claim under 
the pre-emption laws. He had erected a small log cabin and made 
some other improvements on the land. Not probably living up to 
the strict letter of the law as to residence upon the land and the 
land then being deemed quite valuable, one Theophilus Bowen 
"jumped the claim," as it was called in those days and determined 
to contest Hibler's right and ordered trial at the local land office, 
than located at Chatfield, Minnnesota. In Hibler's absence Bowen 
had gone upon the land and taken possession of the building. The 
jumping of claims was in those days, very unpopular and was 
viewed as a gross infringement of private rights, which warranted 
extreme measures. Many persons in those early days lost their 
■lives in this teri'itory because of claim jumping. In many places 
on the frontiers law and order in the first settlement of the country 
is not well established, and but little respected and persons con- 
sidering themselves trespassed upon, often seek to right their 
wrongs "by the strong and bloody hand." 

Hibler returned and on the fifteenth day of October, taking sev- 
eral friends with him, proceeded to the house on his claim and ordered 
Bowen off of the premises. A young man named Alfonso Brooks, 



62 niSToHY OF 

was in the house at the time with Bowen. High words followed 
between Hibler and Bowen, and they got into a scuttle, when Brooks 
interfered and Hibler, who had a stout cane in his hand, struck 
Brooks over the head. Brooks stooped down to pick up a piece of 
brick from a small pile in the corner and as he arose, Hibler struck 
him asain on the head several times. Brooks fell and died in about 
an hour. His skull was broken. Mr. Brooks was buried in the 
graveyard at Blue Earth City, the Rev. J. G. Whitford preaching 
his funeral sermon. It was indeed a .=ad affair. A young man of 
good habits, intelligent, of inoffensive character and not one of the 
principal parties to the quarrel, stricken down in the prime of life. 

Bowen immediately went to Mankato, in Blue Earth countj', to 
which this county had been attached for judicial purposes, and made 
complaint against Hibler and some others, whom he considered im- 
plicated. The complaint was made before a justice of the peace, 
who forthwith issued a warrant for the arrest of Hibler and the 
others. They were arrested and taken before the justice for exam- 
ination. Thomas J. Galbraith. an able lawyer of Shakopee. and 
James Dow, an attorney i-esiding at Red Wing, were retained as coun- 
sel by Hibler and his friends, and Lewis Branson, of Mankato. who 
afterwards became judge of the sixth district, appeared as prose- 
cuting attorney. When the case was called, Mr. Galbraith moved 
the court to discharge the prisoners on the ground that the justice 
had no jurisdiction over the territory (in the county) ^here the 
offence had been committed, the statute of the time enacting that 
the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace should be "Co-extensive 
with the limits of his county and no other or greater." They were 
discharged. Mr. Hibler never returned to this county. He went 
to Shakopee where he remained a short time, and then returned to 
Pennsj'lvania, his native state. The others, being no more than 
mere spectators of the homicide, came home. Bowen subsequently 
pre-empted the land in dispute, the larger part of which, in after 
years, was laid out in additions to Blue Earth City. The current 
opinion of the time was, that the killing of Brooks was mainly an 
accident and that Hibler was not seriously to blame under the cir- 
cumstances. 

THE WEATHER. 

The weather, during the summer and fall of this year, was very 
pleasant until the winter set in, on the twenty-second day of Novem- 
ber, coming down suddenly in the shape of a foot of snow, and 
became very severe. The winter of 1856 7 will long be remembered 
over the whole north, as one of the longest, coldest and stormiest 
ever known in the northwest. 



FABIBAILT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 63 

FROZEN TO DEATH. 

But the tragedies of the year are not all told. About the first of 
December, Daniel Schneider, a resident of the county, and a man 
named Porter, started for Twia Lakes in the state of Iowa, to bring 
in a load of provisions, which Porter had succeeded in getting that 
far, but being unable alone to get further with his load, he had come 
to the residence of Schneider to get assistance. It was very cold and 
the snows deep, but they safely reached Twin Lakes and got ready 
for starting, but were delayed one day as a great snow storm was 
raging. There was then no one living at Twin Lakes, and they had 
to camp out. 

While at this place there came there a man named Jones, and 
another man quite advanced in years, whose name is now forgot- 
ten, who were on their way to this county. They soon found tliat 
they could not move with their load, owing to the great additional 
depth of snow and the drifts, and the cold becoming very severe, 
they were compelled to leave everything and seek some human hab- 
itation or perish. They turned their oxen loose to shirk for them- 
selves and all started for the residence of one Adams, in the Big 
Brush, near Forest City, about fourteen miles distant over the open 
prairies. All were frozen to death on the way, except Jones, who, 
almost exhausted and with feet and hands badly frozen, reached the 
cabin of Adams. It appears that Schneider was the first to fail on 
that terrible journey, as he gave out and laid down to die about six 
miles from Twin Lakes. Porter kept along some miles further and 
wandered off the road in the direction of Coon Grove, where he sank 
down in the sleep of death. The old man whose name is unknown, 
next succumbed, not far from their destination. A party went out 
from Forest City in a few days after and brought in the body 
of Porter, but the others were not found at the time. It was said 
that Porter had about one thousand dollars in gold with him, but no 
money was found on his body. Schneider's remains were found the 
next April, by his father. He was lying on his back, his limbs 
quietly composed, as though he had gone to sleep. His face and 
hands had been eaten away by wolves. His pockets had been turned 
inside out and his wallet lay upon his breast, empty. Whether the 
remains of the old man were ev-er found and what became of the 
oxen and load of provisions, the writer has never been able to learn. 

IMMIGRATION. 

Many permanent residents came into the county during the 
year, and great improvements were made, but there is now no 
means of knowing what the population of the county was at the 
close of the year. 



64 IIISTOHY or 

The first settlements were made during the year in the towns 
afterwards known as Minnesota Lake, Lura, Delavan, Walnut 
Lake, Poster, Emerald, .Jo Daviess and Seely, as will be seen by 
reference to the historical sketches of the several towns. The 
times were prosperous, the future promising and the people ac- 
tive and hopeful. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 65 



CHAPTER III. 

A. D. 1857. 



"Whoop after whoop with rack the ear assailed, 
As if unearthly fiends had burst their bar." 

—Oertrude of Wyoming. 



The year 1857 begun in the midst of one the severest winters 
ever known in this country. The snows lay very deep on the level 
prairies and great drifts, lying in every direction, rendered traveling 
almost impossible. 

During the winter, there was nothing to break the monotony, 
even in the two so-called villages, except the arrival of the weekly 
mail, bringing letters and papers from the great world, from whicli 
the people here were as much isolated as if they were situated on a 
distant island of the ocean. Sometimes the mail carrier, venture- 
some as any man, owing to the deep snows and unbroken roads, 
failed to get through for days after his expected arrival, causing great 
disappointment and many surmises. 

THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. 

The only event of public, or private importance, occuring during 
the winter, was the meeting of this board, and is the flrst meeting 
of which any record exists. The members of the board were Moses 
Sailor, C. W. Wilson and William M. Scott. They assembled on the 
fifth day of January and organized by electing Mr. Scott chairman 
for the year. James B. Wakefield was clerk. The board proceeded 
to divide the county into three districts for assessment purposes, 
but this act was simply a matter of high formality, as it was not in- 
tended to have an assessment, or levy any tax, and none was levied, 
until the next year. A few petitions for roads were examined. The 
only existing roads then were Indian trails. After a session of a few 
hours the board adjourned. 

LEGISLATION. 

The Eighth Territorial Legislature assembled at St. Paul, Jan- 
uary seventh and adjourned March seventh. An extra session was 
held in April and May. The tenth district, of which this county 



66 HISTORY <>F 

was a part, was represented at this session by P. P. Humphery in the 
council, and Joseph R. Brown, Francis Baasen and O. A. Thomas in the 
house. No one of them resided in this county. The legislation at 
this and the extra session following, relating directly to this county, 
consisted of the following acts: — 

An act to incorporate the town of Winnebago City, approved 
February I'Jth, section 2 enacted, "That for the good order and im- 
provement of said town, Andrew C. Dunn be and hereby is appointed 
president; E. H. Burrit, C. H. Parker, James Sherlock and W. N. 
Dunham be and hereby are appointed trustees." 

An act passed May 19th, incorporating Blue Earth City in these 
words: — "That so much land as is contained in the plat of Blue 
Earth City, in the county of Faribault, as the same is platted and 
recoi'ded, be and the same is hereby created a town corporate, by 
the name of Blue Earth City." This is probably the shortest, most 
indefinite and unsatisfactory incorporation act on record. 

An act detaching this county from Blue Earth county, to which 
it had been attached for judicial purposes in 1856. It was thought 
that this county had now become able to stand alone. But little 
business of a judicial character, originating in this county, had been 
transacted during the union. For many years however, after the 
separation, persons who were committed by the courts in this 
county, were sent to the common jail of Blue Earth county and this 
county footed the bills. An act placing this county in the third 
judicial district, passed May 23d. By this act the judge of the dis- 
trict court was authorized to hold terms of court in this county and 
also, in his discretion, to appoint a clerk of court for this county. 

Also an act passed May 23d establishing the county of Martin 
and defining its boundaries, by which one tier of four townships, 
on the west end of this county, being in range twenty nine, was de- 
tached from this county and included in the territory of Martin 
county. The people of this county were asleep, even snoring, or 
grossly negligent at this particular time, especially the proprietors 
of Blue Earth City. The interests of Blue Earth City at least, de- 
manded that the eastern tier of townships — range twenty-four, 
should have been taken off, if any, and the western tier, range 
twenty-nine, retained as that would have brought Blue Earth City. 
the county seat, very near the geographical center of the county, 
and save a world of trouble afterwards. The pi-oceeding was in 
fact a bit of sharp practice, quite current in those days and which 
bore the euphonious name of "Sculduggery." 

It was at this session of the legislature that the famous act was 
passed for the removal of the seat of government — the Capital — 
from St. Paul to St. Peter. But the bill very mysteriously disap- 
peared before it became a law and the whole project fell through 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 67 

to the great joy of St. Paul. The great questions of public inter- 
est, among the leading politicians and others, during the winter 
and spring, were the procuring of a state organization and grants 
of public lands from the general government to aid in the construc- 
tion of railroads. Accordingly the "Enabling Act," authorizing 
the people of the territory to form a constitution preparatory to the 
admission of Minnesota into the Union, was passed by congress, 
February 26th, and later in the session, a large grant of lauds was- 
made for railroads. These important events necessitated an extra 
session of the legislature which met on the 27th of April and ad- 
journed May 25th. 

LOCAL AFFAIRS. 

Turning again to our county affairs, we quote briefly, as illus- 
trative of the local events of the times, the conditions of the coun- 
try and the progress of settlement, from the Journal of an old set- 
tler, who came into the county in the spring of this year: 

April 2d, 1857. Set out this morning early from Mankato for Blue Earth 
City, forty-five miles distant, on horseback, in company with Mr. Dow, the 
Blue Earth City mail carrier and a Mr. A. C. Dunn, a young lawyer and one of 
the town proprietors of Winnebago City. Made but twenty-two miles to-day 
and stopped for the night at a lonely log cabin iu the edge of the timber, the 
proprietor of which, is a Mr. Gregory. The roads are terrible. I was never so 
tired, besides having had nothing to eat all day, I was as hungry as a wolf 
when I got here. When I reached here, I thought I had never seen in my life 
a house look so friendly and hospitable as this old cabin. We soon had a warm 
supper of salt pork, beans, slapjacks and barley coffee and felt much revived. 
This seems a very sparsely settled and desolated region. But it is lime to 
retire, as we start early in the morning. 

April 3d. We got a good breakfast and started early this morning. Mr. 
Dunn remained at Gregory's, being ill. Dow and 1 liad but one horse and a 
very poor one at that. We rode and walked alternately, but both mainly 
walked. The roads were very bad, even worse than yesterday. We waded 
sloughs from one to three feet deep in soft snow and water. At other places 
the mud was from six to twelve inches deep. The wind blew quite hard and 
chilly all day. It was about ten o'clock when we crossed the north county line, 
of this county, to which fact Dow called my attention, as though it was a mat- 
ter of grave importance. I did not observe anything very remarkable. On the 
right in the timber, was a small log cabin, on the east a boundless prairie and 
right before us was another wretched slough to be crossed, which was full three 
feet deep of water, ice and snow. We pulled through it on foot and also pulled 
the horse through, as he was blind. 

About twelve o'clock we reached Winnebago City, but there is cio city 
there, to speak of. In fact there is no town at all, but there is a magnificent, 
roomy place to build a town. I should think they could build a town there the 
size of London and not be cramped much. I observed there only a log house of 
some size, one-and-one-half story high and apparently not finished, which Dow 
said was intended for a hotel, also one other small log building at which we 
stopped. It proved to be a store kept by one T, Foley. He has a few dry goods, 
some tobacco, soap, cod fish and a barrel of whisky. Foley is post master and 
he oyerhauled the mail and seemed entirely happy and insisted en trealing^ 



68 HISTORY OF 

several times. The driver, 1 observed, took some, iifter which we moved on our 
way much refreshed by the short rest. Wo reached another cabin about one 
o'clock, where wecat a prodigious dinner of salt pork, beans, potatoes and some 
Kood bread. This settler's name is Stoddard, and he said that he was the first 
settler in that locality. After dinner we moved on for our destination and 
after a liard tramp of a couple of hours, reached the east branch of the Blue 
Earth river, which we crossed IhrouKh a foot of water on the ice and about four 
o'clock we entered on the sacred soil of the town site of Blue Earth City and 
stopped at this hotel, which is called the Metropolitan. And this is Blue 
Earth City! It strikes me that the reputation of the.se western towns gener- 
ally, is much inflated. Tomorrow I shall look the place over. It Is quite plain 
now that I should have gone to St. Paul, as 1 llrst intended, instead of drift- 
ing so far out on the frontier. 

April 4th. After a liearty break last this morning of potatoes, beans, slap- 
jacks and tea (the pork has run out), I felt ([uite well and ready to prospect. I 
walked out and took a view of the Metropolitan, which is fjuite a large log 
building. It has a wing in the rear, which is used for a kitchen. The kitchen 
and a part of the main building only, appear to be finished. They say this is 
the largest building in tlie county and the only one entitled to the name of 
house. Nearly opposite the hotel is a one story log building, about fourteen by 
twenty feet, which is occupied by Messrs. Grout as a frontier storeand dwelling, 
being the only store in the county, except the one at Winnebago City. Pros- 
pecting further, I found that there are six other small, one story, log cabins 
scattered aliout within a circuit of about half a mile. The population of the 
place is about Iwi'nty-two, large and small, and this is abo\it all there is of this 
much talked of "city." After dinner had a talk with the landlord. lie says his 
name is Constans and that he is one of the town proprietors and that he came 
here over a year ago— says he came from France, via the Alantic^ocean, New 
Orleans, the Mississippi river, St. Paul, Shakopee and several other places, to 
this county. He speaks with a strong Franco-German accent. From our con- 
versation I learn that there are as yet, in the county, no newspapers, no courts, 
no schools, no churches, no doctors, no mechanics at work, no laid out roads, no 
bridges, and that there are but a few settlers and they are settled in the timber 
and about the lakes, and that the prairies are all vacant. It appears that there 
are not twi farms in the county of ten acres of plowed land ; that the people 
are all poor and that nobody is doing anything, and no one wanting to do any- 
thing, but, as the landlord says, all are contented and happy in the prospects of 
the future. Prospects, that is it, everything rests on prospects. Was intro- 
duced by Mr. Constans to one George B. Kingsley, a boarder at this hotel, Mr. 
Kingsley says he is a New Yorker — has ."ome interest in the town and a claim 
near by— says he is postmaster here, but the business does not warrant keeping 
an office and hence he carries the mail matter in his pocket, for convenience 
and safety— says that he is justice of the peace, the first and only one in 
the county, hut that he has never had any business in that line and don't want 
any. He seems quite frank and very hopeful of the future. Here two other 
men came in, one Wakefield, who is a very large man, and one Tennesen, ([uite 
a small man. The curious thought struck me, that if these two persons were 
equalized they would make two averaged sized men. I was introduced. I 
learned that Mr. Tennesen is a settlerholding a "claim." Mr. Wakefield is also 
one of the town proprietors— a lawyer by profession, and is the Register of 
Deeds. 

The conversation continued in relation.to the county and the prospects of 
this town. All seemed to think this county one of the best in the territory, 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 69 

having a good soil, fair distribution of timber, good water and healtiiy. The 
village too is quite near the center of the county and is now the county seat. 
It was said also that the Keokulc, Fort Des Moines and Minnesota railroad, was 
now being built in Iowa, and will run from Fort Dodge to Mankato, this town, 
being on the direct line and the road will undoubtedly be built as far as this 
place, within two years at the furthest! They say the assurances are also very 
good that the United States land office, now located in the eastern part of the 
territory may soon be removed to this place, that is in a year or two probably. 
After some farther talk we all went over to Grout's store — was introduced to 
Lewis P. Grout. While there a Mr. Sailor came in and was introduced to him, 
as the first settler of this county. He gave me his hand and a hearty welcome 
to Faribault county. All present expressed the wish that I should decide to 
remain here. Soon after I returned to the hotel and went to tea and am now 
spending a quiet evening by the stove, jotting down the events of the day. 
While I can hardly believe that all the hopes of these people will be realized, 
yet I will say that I am much impressed with their courteous manners and 
affable conversation. I suppose I shall have to conclude to remain here, for a 
while at least. In the first place I am about out of money. In the second 
place the roads have become nearly impassable and in the third place, while 
everything here seems to be "prospects" the prospects certainly rest on the 
substratum of a good country. I shall leave the decision until to-morrow. 

THE COUNTY FATHERS. 

The commissioQers met again on the 6th day of April. A new 
election district was established comprising all the territory of the 
county lying north of a line commencing at the northwest corner 
of section nineteen, township one hundi'ed and three, range twenty- 
nine and running thence east to the boundary of the county. This 
district was named Winnebago City Precinct and W. N. Towndrow, 
H. T. Stoddard and E. Crosby were appointed judges of election 
and H. H. Bigelow, constable. The remainder of the county con- 
stituted Blue Earth City Precinct, and Albin Johnson, Allen Shultis 
and Benj. Gray were appointed judges of election and S. B. Miller, 
constable. Prior to this division the whole county constituted one 
election district. The county was now also divided into three road 
districts and Philip Chesley, O. N. Gardner and Dewitt Paddock, 
were appointed road supervisors. The board appointed Jas. B. 
Wakefield, judge of probate, L. P. Grout, county treasui'er and H. 
P. Constans, sheriff. The petition of John Clabaugh and others, 
for the formation of a school district — the first one in the county — 
was presented and acted upon. The commissioners subsequently 
held meetings, as follows, on July 6th and 25th, Sept. 6th, Oct. 26th 
and Nov. 2d. The public interests required frequent meetings of 
the board. The action of the board at these several meetings of 
historical interest, is noted elsewhere. 



70 HISTORY OF 

THK INDIAN EXCITEMENT. 

Early in the spring occasional rumors reached the few settlers 
scattered through the county, of coming Indian troubles and af- 
forded grounds for serious apprehensions. Immediatly on the 
north of the county, lay the Winnobago Indian reservation and not 
more than seventy-five miles distant, on the upper Minnesota, was 
the Sioux reservation. Peace had long existed between these tribes 
and the whites, but the Indians were restless and dissatisfied, espec- 
ially the Sioux. The people here were without any special protec- 
tion and the Indians roamed over the country unmolested, hunting 
and fishing. They disturbed no one and peace and quiet reigned 
Avithin the county, but troublous times were near at hand. That 
the reader may have a proper understanding of the events about to 
happen, it is necessary that a brief account should be given of 

THE SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE. 

This statement is taken from that valuable work, Neill's His- 
tory of Minnesota: 

In Ddrlhwestem Iowa, a few miles from the Minnesota bounrlary. there 
is a lake known as Spirit Lake. In the spring of 1856, persons from Ked Wing, 
Minnesota, had visited this place and determined to lay off a town. In the 
winter of IS.'JT there were six or seven Iok' cabins on the border of the lake. About 
fifteen or twenty miles north in Minnesota, there was also a small place called 
SprinKfleld. For several years Inkpaduta, a Wapckuta Dakota, liad lieen 
roving about with a few outlaws, being driven away from their own people by 
internal difficulties. These Indians were hunting in northwestern Iowa, when 
one was bitten by a white man's dog, which he killed. The whites then pro- 
ceeded to the Indian's camp and disarmed them, liut they soon supplied them- 
selves again. After this they arrived on Sunday, the 8th of March, at Sjiirit 
Lake. They p'oceeded to a cabin where only men dwelt, and asked fo' beef. 
Understanding, as they assert, that they had permission to kill one of the 
cattle they did so and commenced cutting it up, when one of the white men 
came out and knocked down one of the Dakotas. For this act the settler was 
shot and another one coming out of the cabin he was also killed. Surrounding 
the house, the Indians now fired the thatched roof and as the men ran out all 
were killed making the whole number eleven. About the sametime, the In- 
dians went to the house of a frontierman, by the name of Gardner and de- 
manded food and all the food in tlie house was given them. The son-in-law 
and another man left to go and .see if all was right in the neighboring cabin, 
hut they never came back. Toward night excited by the blood they, the In- 
dians, had been spilling through the day, they came back again to Mr. Gard- 
ners house and soon killed him, dispatching his wife, two daughters and grand 
children, carried off Abby, the surviving daughter. The next day they con- 
tinued their fiendish work and brought into camp Mrs. Thatcher and Mrs. 
Noble. » » » On Thursday, the 12th day of March, an In- 

dian who had been on friendly terms with Marble's family, called at his house 
and told them that the white people below them on the lake had been nippoed 
(killed) a day or two previously. • * » 

The next day (the 13th), quite early in the forenoon, four Indians came to 
Marble's house and were admitted. They proposed to swap rifles with Marble 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 71 

and the terms were soon agreed upon. After the swap the chief suggested that 
they should go out on the lake and shoot at a mark. Marble assented. After 
a few discharges they turned to come in the direction of the house, when the 
savages allowed Marble to go a few paces ahead and Immediately shot him 
down. Mrs. Marble saw her husband fall and ran to him. The Indians seized 
her and told her they would not kill her, but would take her with them. They 
carried her in triumph to the camp whither they had previously taken the 
three other white women. * * * Inkpaduta and party now proceeded to 
Springfield, where they slaughtered the whole settlement about the 27th of 
March. * * » 

The four captive women were forced by day to carry heavy burdens through 
deep snow and at nightfall they were .made to cut wood and set up the tent 
and after dark, to be subject to the Indignities that suggested themselves to 
savages. 

Mrs. Thatcher and Mrs. Noble were soon after killed and Mrs. 
Marble and Miss Gardner were rescued, all having suffered cruel- 
ties too atrocious to name. 

The reports of these diabolical deeds spread consternation 
throughout the territory, but especially along the frontiers which 
were entirely unguarded. No one knew to what extent the massa- 
cre would be carried nor of how many of the Indians were engaged 
in it. 

How the news reached Blue Earth City and the consequent 
excitement and general results in this county, with many other 
interesting facts of this time, is best stated in the words of the 
Old Settler's Journal written at the time, from which we quoted 
above. 

April 13th. We were suddenly awakened last night about twelve o'clock 
by the arrival of C. W. Wilson and A. Morris, who had been to Mankato on 
business, who informed us in a hurried and frightened manner of terrible mur- 
ders by the Indians and that the Sioux were now coming upon us from the 
north and that the settlers along the river were being murdered and their cab- 
Ins burned. They had abandoned two loads of provisions on the way, which 
they had bought at Mankato, as they could not delay to bring them on. They 
urged us strongly to leave at once and then hastened on to inform the people 
southward on the river, to flee for their lives. The question arose for decision 
at once, what shall be done? There was here in the hotel, Mr. Kingsley, Mr. 
and Mrs. Constans and myself. Messrs Wakefield and Tenneson and the two 
Grouts were in their cabins near by. They came in, when a hurried consulta- 
tion was had. We were few in number and we had but few arms and but little 
ammunition. Would it not be best to go? On the other hand the night was 
dark, quite cold and the wind blowing very hard and there was but one way 
out, that is into Iowa and we should have to cross wide, unsettled prairies for 
forty miles to any known habitation, and we had no conveyance of any kind. 
Here, too, in the village were six or seven women, two of whom are ill. If we 
went they would have to be abandoned. We decided to stay, gather all into 
the hotel, fort up the best we could at once, and fight it out. Before daylight 
some thirty men with their families arrived from the neighboring settlement, 
but many others insisted on going on, and struck out over the prairies for Iowa. 
God help them! They must suffer much, yet they may be taking the wisest 
course. None knows what the result will be. We proceeded to fortify the 



72 HISTORY OF 

house the best we fould with our lliiiitecl lueans, anil when daylight came, we 
found we liud surtU-lent arms and ammunition, witli what had been brought In, 
to stand a pretty lon^t siege. More people arrived during the day with addi- 
tional arms and ammunition. A terrible dread and suspense seems to rest upon 
all. A strong' guard will be placed out to-night. 

April 14th. Evening. lA sort of military organization was elTected 
this morning. J. li. (lillit. who says he was In the "Patriot war" in 
Canada, was elected captain, and S. R Miller, who saw service In Mi'.xico, was 
chosen lieutenant These are the only men jjresent who havi- had any military 
exp erience. A portion of the company was set to building a barricade at a dis- 
tance of about thirty feet from the house, and another party was directed to 
build a sort of rude bridge across the cast branch to facilitate the passage of 
the people from the north and east to the fort. Not expecting an attack during 
the day, the people were distributed among the various cabins for convenience, 
but all to return to the fort in the evening. A number of settlers came in 
to-day and there is much excitement and many rumors. Many from insullicient 
clottiing are suffering from cold. The children look half frozen. I was once on 
guard last night and guards will be stationed out to-night again. Each guard 
remains out one hour, which, considering the cold, is long enough. There are 
five on each watch stationed around the house at a distance of fifteen to twenty 
rods. The practical use of these guards I don't see, but our business Is to 
obey. 

April 15th, 10 A. M. I was twice on guard last night and have slept but 
three hours since the beginning of the excitement. No one could sleep much 
here: thu very dead would almost wake up in the hubbuband turmoil of scream- 
ing children, crying women and incessant running to and fru. No further 
news has been received this morning, but it was concluded to send a messenger 
to Mankato, to learn the condition of affairs. Mr. Dow volunteerq4 to go and 
has gone, but it is thought quite risky. Two others went out in quest of several 
persons who went to their homes yesterday and were to return last evening, 
but did not. 

6 o'clock P. M. The party sent out after the missing men found tlieni and 
all have just returned together. They report that they saw no signs of Indians 
but early this morning they heard four or five gun shots in the distance in a 
locality which the settlers had all left and are now here at the fort, and it is 
thought the Indians are skulking about there. I am much rested having 
had a sleep of two hours this afternoon, though the bed was not a very good 
one — only a blanket spread on the floor in the corner of the room. Just had 
supper— salt pork, just brought in, fried, potatoes considerably frozen, boiled, 
corn bread and fat. Board five dollars per week and "accommodations the best 
the country alfords." 

April Ifith, 9 A. M. On guard once last night No further news this morn- 
ing. A s(iuad was just sent out for some kind of provisions. Slept but little 
last night. Noise, noise, confusion, all the time, night and day. Getting very 
tired of this and who is not. 

12 M. Three strangers— hangdog looking fellows— just arrived frotu below 
and say that the reports we have heard are greatly exaggerated and that there 
Is no real danger. They are going on south. There is something in the manner 
of these men that is not just right and it is believed that they are lying for 
some purpose. I think myself, however, they are not far from the truth as to 
the reports. 

3 P. M. William Granger, one of the founders of the Spirit Lake settle- 
ment and another gentleman of the same name, have just arrived from Spirit 
Lake, sixty miles west. They report that forty persons were slaughtered at 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 73 

Spirit Lake and Springfield, all the settlers there, but four women, who were 
taken prisoners. All the other women were outraged and killed. Messrs. 
Grangers say that the Indians are prowling all along the frontier, in small 
bands, and that we must keep the closest watch. These men reside in Rod 
Wing, and being interested in the Spirit Lake settlement, when they heard of 
the massacre went there at once. After a brief rest they proceeded on their 
way to Red Wing. This news being reliable, the people are much alarmed and 
it seems reasonably so. The officers say that there will be two guards on each 
beat placed out to-night. Why have there been no troops sent on to the frontier? 

April 17th, 9 A. M. Last night we had the windows strongly barricaded 
and guns loaded and placed around the walls, ready for instant use. I was on 
guard but once last night. I tried during the night to get some sleep on the 
floor by the stove, and some others tried the same experiment. It was chiefly 
a failure. There was an incessant howling of dogs all night, crying of childen 
up stairs, ceaseless jabbering and punching of the tires. Was there ever such 
a bedlam outside of a mad house ? But I cannot blame the people much: I am 
beginning to feel a little ugly myself. 

3 P.M. Dow has just returned from Mankato. He says many of the set- 
tlers are leaving the country. Some few have decided to stay and are forting 
up at various places along the river. Quite a number are forted up at Winne- 
bago City and at Stoddard's. He says that at Mankato and other places many 
say they believe there will be a general attack by the Indians all along the 
frontier and they are preparing for it. Two persons just arrived from Walnut 
Lake. They say that they saw a number of Winnebagoes near the lake, who 
were returning to their reservation and who informed them that the Sioux 
were coming in four days. Tomorrow will be the fourth day. 

7 P. M. This evening a few of those who had fled to Iowa returned having 
found secure places for their families there and they have come back to render 
what assistance they can and to look after their effects. They report a terrible 
time of suffering — frozen hands and feet, starvation and fright. 

Oapt. Gillit announces that the provisions are about out. I thought they 
were about out for some time past. Kingsley thinks "Hank" ought to give us 
some deduction on tlie price of board, as he and I are the only regular cash 
boarders and the others all get their frozen potatoes, barley coff -e and johnny 
cake for nothing. 

April 18th, 7 P. M. This was a cold stormy day. Scott to-day brought in a 
sack of white flour, some good potatoes and some other articles of food, which 
he has kept hid somewhere until to-day. Hank told us privately, that we 
should have a good dinner and we had. To-day the case of Adams vs. 
Ahrens was tried before Geo. B. Kingsley, justice of the peace. J. A. Kiester 
appeared for the plaintiff and one Haggin for the defendant. Judgment was 
rendered for the plaintiff. Wakefield, Amicus Curiae, assisted the court in 
settling points of law. It was a queer time and place for a law suit. Quite a 
large number of spectators were present and considerable interest was mani- 
fested in the matter. I am informed that this is the first law suit which has 
ever occurred in the county. If the savages desolate the country, it may also be 
the last for some years at least. 

April 19th, Sunday evening 6 P. M. I was on guard twice last night, but 
got some sleep near morning. The people here are wearied out and they rested 
quietly all day until evening, when now the excitement is as great as ever. 
Several persons who have to-day been out in the country, have returned and 
report having seen, about eight miles out, six Indians, who flred upon them, 
but fortunately they had not been hit. They made all haste to get in and be- 
lieve the red devils are coming. The people are gathering in and are much 



74 HISTORY Ot 

aliirmed. I must say it looks much as though the hour had come. Must these 
fair and fertile lands and new licinieslie nlven up to savage occupancy? 

April 20lh, A. M. No guards wore placed out last night, as it was thought 
too risky. I have thought all along that the guards were of little use in case 
of an attack. Soon after dark last evening, a meeting was called for consulta- 
tion and after an immense amount of jangling, it was concluded to send the 
women and childen away in the morning, under a strong guard, unless indeed 
we should he attacked (luring the night. Hut no Indians have appeared yet. 

12 M. Great division and dissatisfaction exists among the people. Some 
talk of risking the possible danger and leave the country. Others want to 
remain. What is best to be done is' the (|ueslion. We cannot forever remain 
here forted up. It will wliolly ruin three fourths of our people to remove. 
Many are very poor and have large families and all have spent their ready 
means in living during the winter and in getting ready to do something this 
spring and summer. Where shall they go to, and exposed as they shall be on 
the roads may they not be attacked and killed. It was concluded impracticable 
to send the women and children away, as talked last night. 

9 P. M. Tills aflernoDU about a dozen of the farmers cf)ncluded to return 
to their lands vvitli their families, take the risk of whatever danger there may 
be and go to work. They decided that this is the best of the only two practic- 
able ways, either all leave the country, or all remain and put in their crops and 
raise something to live on. But they returned to their homes very reluctantly 
and with many fears. They are not to lie blamed. There are many difficult 
questions connected with the situation just now, which noonecan solve. The 
Indians may, or may not be, very near us. Wehave no definite knowledge on any 
point upon which we can act. In an hour from now the demoniac war-hoop of 
the savages may be heard. There is nothing to prevent their coming. There 
are still some fifteen men here in the fort and we could show a pretty strong 
resistance to an attack, but how would it be with those who have gone to their 
homes? 

April 2Ist, 6 P. M. All retired to rest last night at a late hour and put out 
no watch. All claim that they slept soundly and perhaps safely and to-day 
was spent lounging alifiut in the easiest places we could find. Oh the wearing 
suspense. If we could only learn something definite. 

April 22d, 10 A. M. Slept well last night. Quite a number of people leav- 
ing this morning and others are talking of going. There are many contrary 
opinions. Some say there are no assurances of any degree of safety here. The 
people are all scattered now, and we have no protection and the very silence 
and comparative quiet which now exists, may be like the calm before a storm. 
One man with a very large family of children, all small, begs with tears that 
the younger men will not go away. He says he cannot go— has no money, no 
conveyance and no place to go to. There are many others in equally poor cir- 
cumstances. These people cannot be deserted and most of those who talked 
of going, say they will stay. Is the government doing nothing? It has always 
been too slow in protecting the \^•estern frontiers. 

4 P. M. Just received news from the north of a reliable character that the 
Indians arc now not near us and that the United States troops are on the way 
to the west and northwest of us to be there stationed for the protection of the 
country. This is indeed good news Several persons start out into the country 
to carry the glad tidings to the people. Some of those who left this morning, 
having heard the good news on the way, returned this evening. The confidence 
of the people much restored and a (luiet joy tieams from every face. God bless the 
good old government, after all. Thus ends, for the present at least, this mean, 
fearful, bloodless, dirty, hungry, cold and wretched Indian excitement, the 
first in the history of the county and I hope the last. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 75 

Alas ! how futile this hope. Had the writer of the Journal 
possessed the power of the seer, to know the future, he might have 
seen in his visions, the red specter of an infuriated demon, brand- 
ishing a tomahawk dripping in blood, prophetic of a coming day, 
not long delayed, of death and desolation. But it should not be 
thought that the people felt entirely secure — far from it. Nothing 
but stern necessity drove them to their homes and kept them there. 
Much the same dread and fearful apprehensions were upon all for 
many months, notwithstanding the troops were now in the country. 
The barking of a dog in the silent hours of the night, unusual noises 
borne upon the winds, the light of fires reflected in the midnight 
sky, unusual delay in the return of the absent, the reports of gun 
firing in the distance, unusual stillness, even the peculiar whistling 
of the wind around the log cabin, the calling of birds, or the dismal 
howl of the wolf, created uneasiness with the nervous, lonely settler 
on the frontier, and not without reason, for often in the traditions of 
the border, these things proved to be the omens of death, for the 
Indian is a silent, sudden, crafty and cruel foe, whose artifices and 
cunning few can match. Much the same experiences were had, 
during the Indian excitement at Winnebago City and one or two 
other places, as those detailed at Blue Earth City. 

STEAM SAW MILLS. 

During the sjiring of this year, a steam saw mill was erected at 
Winnebago City, being the first one in the county, and about the 
middle of June another was erected and put in operation at Blue 
Earth City. The starting of these mills was an important event in 
the business affairs and prosperity of the county. Prior to the 
erection of these mills building was almost impossible, as lumber 
could only be had at great expense. Only log houses had been built 
before, but now frame dwellings could be erected. Each of these 
mills could turn out lumber at the rate of about 2,500 to 3,000 feet 
per day. An average of about forty dollars per thousand feet was 
charged. The effects were soon apparent, especially in the villages. 
New houses were built, log houses repaired, fences put up, and these 
signs of improvement greatly encouraged the people. These mills 
were the first manufacturing establishments in the county. The 
proprietor of a saw mill in those days, was deemed a "great man" 
and a power in the land. But we have long since ceased to use 
native lumber. As railroads were built it became convenient to get 
pine. The old mills long ago disappeared and so also have the 
original mill proprietors. 



HISTORY OF 



WEATHER AND CROPS. 



The spring of this year was late and cold. CJold weather and 
high winds continuing until about the middle of Maj'. It was the 
latest and coldest spring which has yet been known here. The 
ground did not become fit for seeding until near the last of May. 
A little seeding, however, was done on the higher grounds as early 
as April l'7th. Some remnants of the deep snow drifts of the winter, 
were seen as late as the fourth day of Julj*. on the north side of the 
river bluffs, in the timber, near [^Blue Earth City. Yet vegetation 
never obtained a ranker, or more rapid growth, than it did in that 
year, and the crops in Minnesota were very abundant for the area 
cultivated. As there was yet but little land under cultivation, the 
crops in this count j' were merely nominal. 

PRICES. 

It may be of interest to some to know the prices current of staple 
articles at this time. Flour was $4.50 and corn meal 83.00 per hun 
dred; corn 81.00 and potatoes 75 cents per bushel; butter 30 cents, 
salt pork 25 cents, tea 81.00, sugar 18 cents, coffee 25 cents, chewing 
tobacco 8100, smoking tobacco 60 cents each per pound: sheeting 
18 cents per yard; whisky 80 cents and brandy 75 cents per pint and 
pint flasks 15 cents each. 

For prices current in the earlier years of the county, the writer 
is indebted to the account books of Mr. Isreal S. Mead, who was 
engaged in mercantile pursuits during a number of those j'ears. 

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 

Under the Enabling Act above referred to. aCJonstitutional Con- 
vention to consist of one hundred and eight members (each Council 
district to elect two for each Councilman and Representative, to 
which it was entitled), was authorized to meet at the Capital on the 
second Monday of July, to frame a State Constitution and submit 
the same to the people of the Territor3\ The election for members 
was held on the first Monday of June. 

On the 13th day of July, the delegates met, but owing to a dis- 
agreement as to the hour of meeting, the Republican members met 
and organized one body and the Democratic members also organ- 
ized separately. Each of these bodies claiming to be the legal Con- 
stitutional Convention, proceeded with the work of forming an in- 
strument to be submitted to the people. After some daj's an under- 
standing was effected between them and by means of committes of 
conference the same Constitution was framed and adopted by both 
bodies. On being submitted to the people at the general election 
October 13th, it was ratified. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 77 

NEW APPORTIONMENT. 

The Constitutional Convention redistricted tlie Territory for 
Legislative purposes, by which action the counties of Faribault and 
Freeborn were constituted the Fourteenth Senatorial district and 
was entitled to one senator and thx-ee representatives. 

INDIANS AGAIN. 

About the middle of July, the frontier settlements were again 
agitated and put in great fear by rumors afloat on the borders, that 
the Indians were preparing for another attack on the white settlers. 
Government had failed as yet to punish the Spirit Lake murderers 
and the Indians generally of the north-west had grown insolent and 
made many threats. On the 20th, a meeting was called of the peo- 
ple of Blue Earth City and vicinity, to eifect some sort of military 
organization. A company was formed, of which James Decker was 
elected captain, J. A. Kiester, first lieutenant and H. P. Constans, 
second lieutenant, and it was determined to build a large block 
house, for a fort. . The company roll and subscription list of work 
and money for the block house, are still in the hands of the writer. 
Arms and ammunition were to be procured from the Governor, but 
the arms never came and the fort was not built, and in a few days 
the excitement died out, to be renewed again about the 9th of Aug- 
ust. On that day several settlers who resided at Chain Lakes, ar- 
rived at Blue Earth City and reported that the Indians were about 
the Lakes and that one Indian and one white man — a Mr. Britt — had 
been shot and the people there wanted assistance. The people at 
the lakes had built a fort of logs and named it Port Britt. It was a 
building of six sides, each side being twenty feet long. It was one 
story high and had a battlement around the top six feet high, which 
projected over the lower story all around, some six feet. It had re- 
quired a great deal of labor and has quite a strong and commodious 
fortification. As requested, a small company on horseback went 
from Blue Earth City to the Port where they found most of the 
people gathered and much " alarmed. It appeared that Mr. 
Britt, who had been down in the timber several days previous, had 
been shot at by one of a company of Indians and slightly wounded, 
and he returned the fire and probably killed the Indian, as he was 
seen to fall when the others fled, and Mr. Britt hurried home. The 
company scoured the woods and the country about the lakes, but 
found no Indians and they returned home next day just as well satis- 
fied as though they had got into a fight and been scalped. These 
rumors and excitements occurred at intervals during the whole year 
and kept the people in a state of constant anxiety and dread. 

To be attacked and defeated by a civilized foe, is bad enough, 
but to be beaten by these Indian savages and suffer the horrible 



78 HISTOltY OF 

atrocities of maiming and torturing, which they usually inflict upon 
their victims, is quite another thing.and it is not a matter of surprise 
that when apparently well founded rumors that the savages were 
coming, reached the people of the frontier, scattered and unpro- 
tected, that the cheeks of strong men turned pal«^, and women grew 
wild with terror. And he is much of a braggart and more of a cow- 
ard, who would affect to sneer at or ridicule the alarm of the people 
under such circumstances. 

THE FINANCIAL PANIC. 

Probably the most extraordinary, violent and destructive finan- 
cial panic ever known in America occurred in this year. The times 
for some years preceding the panic were characterized by the 
great amount of debts of individuals and corporations and almost 
incredible extravagance and wild speculations. Cities, corpora- 
tions, banks and individuals, were drained of money to construct 
unproductive railroads, or to invest in western land speculations. 
The whole western country, especially the territories, was swarm- 
ing with land speculators, dealing in wild lands, paper cities and 
great schemes of improvement. Lands and lots were sold often at 
fabulous prices. Great railroad lines were projected, companies 
formed and stock sold. These operations with others of a similar 
character, made money scarce everywhere where it was properly 
needed and diverted thousands of men and millions of capital from 
legitimate and productive business. The inevitable result came, 
the great bubble suddenly collapsed. The Ohio Life and Trust 
Company, an immense moneyed institution, led off sometime in 
August in the failures. Then followed the banks, companies, cor- 
porations and individuals, all going down in bankruptcy and ruin. 
In the graphic words of a writer on the subject "all over the land, 
east, west, north, south, the dark days of fear, alarm and ruin 
settled down upon the people and panic raged like a pestilence." 
The excitement became terrible. Crowds of depositors and others 
interested, rushed upon the banks and other institutions demanding 
their dues, and mobs gathered in the streets of the cities. Thous 
ands of men accounted rich became beggars. Almost all the great 
industries ceased and tens of thousands of laboring men were turned 
out of employment. Bank paper became worthless and gold and 
silver exceedingly scarce. After raging some months the panic be- 
gan to subside and financial affairs to right themselves. But untold 
ruin had been wrought and the country did not recover from its 
effects, for years. Minnesota was of course in the maelstrom with 
the rest of the nation. In this county, then so sparcely settled and 
the money being mainly gold and silver, the great panic was not so 
suddenly and disastrously manifest, but it had its etfects in a year 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 79 

or two aftei", as will be presently seen. But the rumbling of the 
thunder in the distance was distinctly heard here. 

THE FIRST CENSUS. 

The Enabling Act authorized the taking of a census, or enum- 
eration of the inhabitants of the Territory for the purpose of deter- 
mining the number of members of Congress the proposed State 
would be entitled to on admission into the Union. 

Andrew C. Dunn was appointed deputy marshal, to take the 
census of this county The work was completed in September and 
the population of the county was at that time, as appears from the 
State files, six hundred and eighty-nine, though it was otherwise 
reported to be over seven hundred. 

It was merely an enumeration of the inhabitants. No other 
statistics were taken. The writer has made repeated but fruitless 
efforts to obtain a copy of this census. It would be of great inter- 
est as exhibiting the names of the residents of the county at that 
time. 

THE "GREAT AWAKENING." 

In this and the following year occurred one of the most won- 
derful and general religious revivals ever known in America. It 
has been well said that "It was in a word the American Pentacost, 
the great religious epoch of the national century, unequalled in ear- 
nestness, union and universality by any similar movement that 
had preceded it in the history of the western world." It was not 
confined to any particular class of people, or religious bodies. 
Even among religious denominations unaccustomed to what are 
termed "revival meetings," the movement exhibited itself very 
early in acts of co-operation with others, in earnest prayers and in 
great and daily labors for the promotion and success of the work. 
It surpassed in many of its aspects, the religious movement com- 
menced many years later (in 1875) under the auspices of Messrs. 
Moody and Sankey. 

This great religious awakening, nothwithstanding its wide extent 
and influence, did not reach this immediate region. 

POLITICS— THE FIRST COUNTY CONVENTION. 

We have now, in the course of events, reached the first polit- 
ical campaign known in the history of the county. 

Oq the 19th day of September the first political convention ever 
assembled in this county met at Blue Earth City. It was a repub- 
lican mass convention aud was called for the purpose of nominating 
candidates for legislative and county offices. Prior to this time no 
political questions hud beeu raised. 



80 histohy (IF 

It was claimed that the democrats were in the majority in the 
county, and it could not be disputed, as the party lines had never 
been drawn and the test made. 

Two republicans at Blue Earth City concluded to test the mat- 
ter and called this convention. It was well attended and harmo- 
nious. A declaration of principles was adopted, nominations made, 
a county central committee elected and the party organized, wiiicli 
organization continues to this day. 

By a previous arrangement between the leading republicans of 
the two counties, it was agreed not to hold a joint convention for the 
nomination of legislative candidates, but that Faribault county 
should nominate two candidates for representatives and Freeborn 
county should nominate the candidate for senator and one repre- 
sentative. The following nominations were made by this con- 
vention : 

For Representatives— J. B. Wakefield, of Blue Earth City ; W. 
N. Dunham, of Winnebago City. 

For County Treasurer— Albin Johnson. 

For County Surveyor— .T. A. Kiester. 

For Sheriff— Thos. R. Foley. 

For Judge of Probate— J. B. Wakefield. 

For Coroner— J. B. Gillit. 

For County Commissioners — M. Sailor and E. Crosby. 

No nomination was made for the office of Clerk of Coufl. 

The Rejjublican convention of Freeborn County, nominated Dr. 
George Watson for Senator and A. H. Bartlett for one of the Rep- 
resentatives, both of Freeborn County. 

The Democrats in a few days after, also placed candidates in 
the field for the several offices, as follows: 

For Senator — E. C. Stacy, of Freeborn county. 

For Representatives — A. P. Sweuford, of Freeborn county, 
Andrew C. Dunn, of Faribault county, Geo. B. Kingsley, of Fari- 
bault county. 

For Treasurer— C. W. Wilson. 

For Surveyor— H. L. Young. 

For Sheriif— Perry Lamphere. 

For Judge of Probate— H. P. Constans. 

For Clerk of Court — Jno. M. Jackson, jr. 

For County Commissioner — E. M. Ellis. 

One Leander Lee was an independent candidate for sheriff and 
O. G. Hill for treasurer. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 81 

The election was held on the 13th clay of October, and resulted 
in this county as follows: 

For Senator— Geo. Watson 128 

E. C. Stacy 91 

For Eepresentativc— A. P. Swinford 77 

A. H. Bartlett 122 

W. N. Dunham 66 

A. C. Dunn 51 

J. B. Wakefield 169 

Geo. B. Kingsley 146 

For County Commissioner— M. Sailor 124 

E. Crosby 102 

E, M. Ellis 94 

For Treasurer— Albin Johnson 118 

C. W. Wilson 4 

O. G. Hill 39 

For Sheriff— Thos. E. Foley 62 

P. Lamphere 54 

L. Lee 46 

For Surveyor — J. A. Kiester 121 

H.L.Young 33 

For Coroner-J. B. Gillit 123 

No opposition. 

For Judge of Probate— H. P. Constans 87 

J. B. Wakefield 116 

For Clerk of Court— Jno. >I. Johnson, jr 46 

James L. McCrery, Allen Shultis and Geo. K. Moulton were 
elected Justices of the Peace. Theo. Bowen, G. S. Converse, Henry 
R. Walker and B. Madison were elected Constables and Geo. D. 
McArthur, D. J. Sparks and Ed. Sumner. Road Supervisors, and 
Albin Johnson, John Haggin and H. T. Stoddard, Assessors. 

The Republican Legislative candidates except one, had a ma- 
jority in the district. 

This election showed that the whole vote of the county was 
about two hundred and twenty in this year and that both the legis- 
lative district and the county were Republican in iiolitics. 

W. W. Phelps and James M. Cavanaugh were elected Repre- 
sentatives in Congress. 

THE FIRST WEDDINGS. 

On the 6th day of November two weddings occurred at Blue 
Earth City, which were doubtless the first in the county and as 
such are entitled to a place in this history. The parties were Fred. 
Mittlesdorf and Miss Dora Miller, and Henry Miller and Miss Mary 
Drager. The marriages were solemnized by James L. McCrery, 
Esq., Justice of the Peace. It is written "Therefore shall a man 
leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and 
they shall be one flesh." 



82 HlSToliV OF 

"As Isaac ami Rebecca lived faithfully together, so these per- 
sons may surely perform and keep tlie vow and covenant betwixt 
them made, and may ever remain in perfect love and peace to- 
gether." 

The following clover lines are from the pen of a good deacon, 
a good jurist and evidently a good poet: 

There is a problem to the schools unknown, 

Whereby two added fjives the produft one; 

Whereby the more their sorrows they divide, 

So luuch the more their joys arc multiplied. 

And love subtracted from the willing soul, 

Gains while it t'i^es, and thus augments the whole. 

Nor stop we here, for when these Iovitj marry. 

Soon off it happc'Hs that there's one to carry! 

Yea two, three, four, to till the house with joy, 

And down the stream of time to hear the name of— Roy. 

In an old paper printed a century ago, we find the following on 
matrimony: 

Oh. matrimony, thou art like 

To Jeremiah's Hgs; 
The good is very good— the bad 
Too sour to )?ive the pigs. 

I never dreamed of such a fate, 
When I a— lass was courted— 
Wife, mother, nurse, seamstress, cook, housekeeper, chambermaid, 
laundress, dairy-woman, and scrub generally, dolpg the work 
of six. 
For the sakeof being supported! 

THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 

The first State Legislature, though the State had not yet been 
admitted to the Union, assembled at the Capital, December 2d, 1857, 
and continued in session until March 25th, 1858, when a recess was 
taken until June 2d, when it again met and continued in session 
until Aug. 12th, when it finally adjourned. The State had in the 
meantime been admitted. The transition from a Territorial to a 
State government and many great public interests, demanding 
attention, created the necessity for much legislation. The acts 
passed at the session having special reference to this county are 
named in the history of the next year. 

The representatives of this district, appearing at the opening 
of the '"long parliament," were Geo. Watson in the Senate and J. B. 
Wakefield. A. H. Bartlett and W. N. Dunham in the House. Andrew 
C. Dunn, of this county, was secretary of the senate. Mr. Geo B. 
Kingsley, however, claimed the seat occupied by Mr. Dunham and 
proceeded to contest the same. The facts in relation to the matter 
were as follows. By the ofiicial canvass of the votes cast for 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 83 

representatives, Mr. Dunham, it appeared, had four hundred 
and nineteen votes, and Mr. Kingsley four hundred and thirteen 
votes in the entire district and Mr. Dunham received the certificate 
of election. But it appeared from the testimony taken on the in- 
vestigation, that the entire vote of Bear Lake Precinct No. 5, in 
Freeborn county, in which Mr. Kingsley had received thirty-eight 
votes and Mr. Dunham seventeen votes, had been rejected by the 
canvassing board of Freeborn county, on the ground that nine 
illegal votes had been cast and 'other irregularities had occurred in 
the election. The legislature decided that the returns from this 
precinct were improperly rejected by the canvassing board, and 
now deducting the nine illegal votes from the thirty-eight received 
by Mr. Kingsley left him twenty-nine votes, which added to the 
four hundred and thirteen votes cast for him elsewhere in the dis- 
trict, and adding the seventeen votes for Mr. Dunham to the four 
hundred and nineteen votes received, by him elsewhere in the dis- 
trict, and the result was for Kingsley four hundred and forty-two, 
for Dunham four hundred thirty-six, leaving Kingsley a clear 
majority of six votes all of which appearing satisfactorily to the 
House, Kingsley was admitted to the seat. 

At this Session, Henry M. Rice and James Shields were elected 
United States Senators, the former for six and the latter for two (2) 
years. 

IMMIGRATION. 

Notwithstanding the Indian excitement, the great financial re- 
vulsion and some other unfavorable circumstances, the immigration 
during the summer and fall was large and the population of this 
county was greatly increased and the building and other improve- 
ments were extensive and permanent. It was really the first year of 
substantial and encouraging progress. It was indeed a year among 
the most eventful in the history of the State and the county, but the 
events of the time are already fast growing dim in the memories of 
the people, while many of the principal actors in the events of both 
the State and the county are now sleeping in their graves. 



84 niSTORY OF 



(JLVrTER IV. 

A. D. 1858. 

THE WORK OF THE SOLONS. 

The laws passed by the first State Legislature referred to in 
the preceding chapter, specially relating to this county, were the 
following : 

An act to locate a State road from Chatfield, Fillmore County, 
to Winnebago City in this countJ^ 

An act to locate a State road from Brownsville, Houston County, 
to Winnebago City. 

An act to establish a State road from Blue Earth City to Shell 
Rock City in Freeborn County. 

In those days, before the existence of railroads, state roads 
were deemed of groat importance, being usually established between 
important points and across two or more counties. The fact that a 
village was a crossing point, or the terminus of a number of state 
roads, was held to be a matter of great consequence, and the legis- 
lature was often asked to authorize the establishment of these high- 
ways. Some of these roads, attracting and directing the course of 
travel and traffic, in natural and convenient channels, served to 
ci'eate the necessity for, and prove the practicability of certain 
great lines of railway, subsequently built, of which they were the 
forerunners. State roads are seldom ever heard of now. 

THE COUNTY BOARD. 

The commissioners met at Blue Earth City on the 9th day of 
January. At this session the first lists of grand and petit jurors 
were selected. The lists consisted of fifty grand and seventy-two 
petit jurors. The task of selecting these numbers of suitable per- 
sons for jurymen, at that time, was rather a difficult one, and the 
lists embraced about all the talented, ablebodied and respectable 
settlers in the county, not in the legal and ministerial professions. 
None of these jurors were, however, called upon to serve, as no term 
of court was held this year. 

The board met again on the fifth day of April. More business 
was transacted at this session than at any preceding one, and it was 
much the most important session yet held. A new election precinct 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 85 

was formed and named Walnut Lake precinct, and E. M. Ellis, P. 
C. Seely and L. J. Whitney were appointed judges of election. 

An act having been passed by the legislature establishing in 
each county a board of road commissioners, to which everything 
pertaining to public roads should be referred, the county board 
appointed W. J. C. Robertson and J. L. McCrery road commission- 
ei-s and they, with the county surveyor, then J. A. Kiester, who 
was by law ex-officio a member of the board, constituted the board 
of road commissioners. A number of the principal county roads 
still existing, were established by this board. 

The county commissioners at this session, after a great deal of 
discussion and profound meditation, decided to have a general 
assessment made of all the taxable property of the county and levy 
a tax for public purposes. It had become impossible to conduct the 
affairs of the county longer, without paying the expenses. 

Accordingly for the purpose of making assessments, Winnebago 
City precinct No. one was assigned to H. T. Stoddard, assessor. 
Blue Earth City precinct No. two was assigned to Albin Johnson, 
assessor, and Walnut Lake precinct No. three was assigned to John 
Haggin, assessor. Mr. Stoddard appointed Grover C. Burt, deputy, 
who made the assessment of district No. one and Mr. Haggin ap- 
pointed Albert Tower, deputy, who made the assessment of district 
No. three and Mr. Johnson made the assessment of his district, No. 
two, personally, and these three gentlemen were the first assessors 
in this county. 

At this session also the first batch of bills against the county 
was audited and amounted in all to ipl74.40. There have been few, if 
any, sessions of the board since that day, at which the auditing of 
bills was not the chief business. The other action of the Board at 
this session is noted elsewhere. 

SPRING RAINS AND FLOODS. 

The spring was late and stormy and the rains were so incessant 
that the farmers could scarcely get in their crops, though some little 
wheat was sown early in April. Only the highest grounds could be 
cultivated and much seed rotted in the ground. This year will ever be 
memorable with the old settlers as the wettest in the history of the 
county. All low lands were overflowed. Creeks became rivers and 
the rivers widened out over the bottom lands into seemingly perma- 
nent lakes, but still it continued to rain. The roads became imj)as- 
sable and overflowed in every direction. Some prophesied another 
deluge. Everything was wet and dripping and on every hand were 
fathomless mud and seas of water. Occasionally for a day the sky 
would clear up and the blessed sun would shine, but it afforded no 
hope and it had become a truthful, as well as a standing remark, 
' 'Well it has cleared up for another shower." 



86 HISTORY (>F 

The following lines from the Dublin Mai! are quite appropriate 

here: 

Dirty days has Seplfiiibor, 

April, Jurif, and November, 
From January up tn May, 

The rain it rainelh every day. 
All the rest have thirty-one. 

Without one blessed (,'leani of sun. 
And if any of them had-two and-lliirly. 

They'd be as wet and twice as dirty. 

However, about the last of July it began to dry up and the re- 
mainder of the year was not so bad. 

MOSQUITOES. 

To add to the discomfort of the times, great clouds of mosqui- 
toes tilled the air, as evening approached and annoyed the people 
beyond endurance. Sultry heat, constant rains, deep mud and 
swarms of mosquitoes, were the characteristics of the spring and 
summer. And the reader should know that the mosquitoes of the 
early years of this county were not the puny littje husks which a 
breath would demolish, such as we see occasionally now-a-days. 
They were large, bony fellows, with long nibs, ferocious songs, a 
diabolical aspect and blood thirsty instincts, and possessed of a 
courage that baffled the most heroic defence. Great smudges of 
chips, dry grass and green weeds, making a smoke stitjng enough 
to tan a hide, had to be built in the summer evenings to protect the 
devoted settlers from the attacks of these cannibals. 

"Of all the plagues hot summer brings, 
Whether they move on legs or wings, 
The little wretch that closest clings. 
The thing that most our patience wrings," 
Is the nasty little mosquito. 

The writer should probably apologize for an occasional frivo- 
lous remark or amusing incident in this work, yet while it is well to 
keep in mind the dignity and gravity of history, we may also re- 
member that 

"A little nonsense nfiw and then 
Is relished by the best of men." 

And, also, by a great many good women. 

THE FIVE MILLION LOAN. 

The legislature having proposed an amendment to the Constitu- 
tion of the State authorizing the loan of the credit of the State, to 
the amount of tive million of dollars, to aid the land grant railroad 
companies, in the construction of their roads, the amendment was 
voted upon by the people on the 15th day of April. The amend- 
ment was adopted by a large majority. The vote of this county was 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 87 

favorable to the amendment but the returns of the vote cast here did 
not reach the State Canvassing Board and were not counted. There 
were many at the time who doubted the expediency of the measure. 
The debt was a very large one to be incurred by so young a State. 
People were not then as familiar with enormous public debts as 
they afterwards became during the war. Some doubted the good 
faith of the transaction and so expressed themselves. • But the hard 
times, the great importance of railroads to the development of the 
country and the hope that their construction would give labor and 
greatly increase the amount of money in circulation — in short malie 
good times, superceded every otlier consideration. The bonds of 
the State known as the "Minnesota State Railroad Bonds" were sub- 
sequently issued to the amount of two millioa two hundred and 
seventy-five thousand dollars, bearing interest, payable semi-an- 
nually, at the rate of seven per cent, per annum. Only a certain 
amount of grading was done to procure these bonds. The roads 
were not built and the whole project fell through. For more than 
twenty years the payment or even any adjustment looking to the 
payment of the principal or interest of these bonds was resisted by 
the people. An adjustment of the whole matter was reached finally 
in 1881. 

THE STATE ADMITTED. 

There was great rejoicing and some demonstrations made 
throughout the country, when it was anaounced that Congress had on 
the eleventh day of May, admitted Minnesota into the Union. The 
State Officei-s were sworn in on May 2-tth. The first State Officers 
were H. H. Sibley, Governor; Wm. Holcomb, Lieutenant Governor; 
Francis Baasen, Secretary of State; G. VV. Armstrong, Treasurer; 
W. F. Dunbar, Auditor and C. H. Berry, Attorney General. The 
leading strings and subordinate condition incident to the territorial 
organization were now dropped and Minnesota stood forth clothed in 
all the power and dignity of an equal state, with the motto emblaz- 
ened on her forehead' "L'Etoile du Nord" — the Star of the North. 

THE COUNTY BIBLE SOCIETY. 

The following pronouncement is found in the confession of faith 
of one of the greatest of American religious bodies, and is, there- 
fore entitled to the highest respect: 

"Although the light of nature and the works of creation and providence do 
so far manifest the goodness, wisdom and power of God, as to leave man inexcus- 
able; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of His will, 
which is necessary unto salvation; therefore,it pleased the Lord at sundry times 
and in divers manners to reveal Himself and declare that His will unto His 
church, and afterwards for the better preserving and propagation of the truth 
and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the cor- 
ruption of the flesh and the malice of .Satan and of the world, to commit the 



88 HISTORY OF 

satuo wholly unto writing." • ♦ * "And the hcavenliness of the 

nialtiT, the ertlcacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the styli-, the consent of all 
the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to give all flory toGod), the full dis- 
covery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many otluT incompara- 
Me excellences and the entire perfection thereof are ar^juments whereby it doth 
abundantly evidence itself to be the word of God." 

Saith the Psalmist— "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; 
Iho testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." 

Saith Paul the Apostle. — "All scripture Is given by inspiration of God, and 
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, foY correction, for instruction in righteous- 
ness." .Second Timothy, 3:16. 

On the 23d day of May of this j'ear, the Faribault County Bible 
Society was organized at Blue Earth City. As the records of the 
first six years of the society appear to have been lost, the names of 
the first officers cannot here be given. This society, it should be 
observed, was one of the first of the permanent institutions of the 
county. Until about the year 1866. the society was a branch of the 
Minnesota State Bible Society, but the State society becoming dis.sol- 
ved at that time, our society was transferred to and became an auxil- 
liary of the American Bible Society, one of the greatest and most 
beneficent institutions of modern times. There are other Bible soci- 
eties in America doing a great woi'k. but our society has no con- 
nection with them. 

The American Bible Society was instituted in May, 1816, in the 
city of New York. Brietly stated, the object of the societi^' is to pro- 
mote the circulation throughout the world, of the Holy Scriptures, 
without note or comment. The King James translation, known as 
the authorized version, is the text used. What the course of the 
society may be. as to the "revision" of our daj', will probably take a 
number of years to decide. The society is wholly unsectarian and 
people of almost all shades of religious belief, are interested in the 
society. Prom gifts and bequests and other sources, the society 
has become very rich, its property amounting to millions. There 
may be dangers lying in the path of this great institution. It may 
become too rich; the conduct of its affairs too expensive; indolence 
in its great work may come with age and wealth^ind its methods be- 
come inadequate and behind the wants of the age. Rings may usurp 
its management and dissensions rend it asunder. Where such great 
interests are involved, prudence, suggesting possible misfortunes 
may aid in avoiding them. But hoping and believing that this noble 
institution is in God's care and keeping, let us have no fears of the 
future. 

In each county, or district, where the society has an auxilliary, 
or branch, it has a number of depositories, where its various styles 
of publications are kept. They can be had very cheaply. A good 
copy of the Bible can be had for twenty-five cents and of the New 
Testament alone for five cents, and when the person who wants 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 89 

them is too poor to pay these prices, he can have them for nothing. 
Agents are also employed to canvass the county and visit every 
family and supply the destitute with the Scriptures. 

An auxilliary society was organized at Winnebago in July, 1866, 
and one was established at Wells in December, 1871. 

Our local society has kept up its organization from its first 
institution and has carried out the purposes of its establishment with 
commendable success. To have in our midst an auxilliary of so ben- 
eficent a society, established so early in our history, and doing its 
Avork faithfully, is an honor to the county which should be duly 
appreciated. 

Among the ancient collects we find the following very appro- 
priate one. 

"Blessed Lord, who has caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our 
learning; grant that we may in such manner hear them, read, mark, learn and 
inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of Thy Holy Word, we may 
embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life."' 

The Bible is certainly the greatest, most unique and the most 
valuable book which has ever appeared on earth. It is prevaded 
and illumined by wisdom and knowledge which are above and beyond 
man. 

There are those who are apprehensive of the alleged growing 
infidelity of the age and the results of what is known as the 
"higher criticism'' of the Scriptures, now dawning upon the world, 
and which latter is undoubtedly destined to still "higher" altitudes. 
Centuries have swept over the world, filled with doubt, perversion 
and infidelity, during which God and the Scriptures have been at- 
tacked from every side. Yet there are more intelligent believers in 
God and His Word today than ever before in the world's history. 
God and his word will take care of themselves. 

There can be but little danger to them, from the wisdom of their 
assailants, or from any man, however learned, or intellectual, whose 
knowledge at best is so shallow and limited, that but for God's reve- 
lation found in the Scriptures, he cannot even tell from whence he 
came, or whither he is going, or for what possible purpose he has 
appeared in this world. There are no grounds for fear, dear reader. 

AN INDIAN FLEET. 

In the early part of June, a fleet of Indian canoes passed down 
the east branch of the Blue Earth river, from Walnut Lake, on their 
way to their reservation in Blue Earth county. The red skins passed 
Blue Earth City and also Winnebago City, without deigning to call. 
Owing to the state of feeling existing against the Indians, in conse- 
quence of the Spirit Lake massacre, they were somewhat guarded in 
their movements for a year or two after. They were at least as 



90 IIISTOHY OF 

much afraid of Ihc Wlates as tVio Whiles were of them, and both 
sides acted a good deal in the spirit of the fellow, who, having got 
into a tight with the wrong man, said to the by standers, "Two of 
you hold the other fellow — one can hold me." 

THE FIRST FOURTH OF JULY. 

It is pleasant to record the fact in this history, that the people 
of this county, though situated upon the borders of civilization, and 
a little short of many things that go to make up an old fashioned 
Fourth of July celebration, still possessed the spirit of i)atriotism 
unimpaired. On the third day of July, the Fourth being Sunday, 
occurred the first celebration of Independence Day in this county. 
The day was very fine, being an exception to the weather of that 
summer. The people in Blue Earth City, and vicinity, assembled 
about ten o'clock in the forenoon, at Young's Hall. W. W. Knapp 
read the Declaration and J. A. Kiester delivered an address, after 
which there was some patriotic singing. Then a splendid free din- 
ner was served in the hall and the program was closed for the day, 
but the festivities of the occasion were completed by two separate 
dances on Monday night, which lasted all night, and which, as re- 
lated by those present, for real enjoj-raent, free and easj' manners, 
good will and flow of spirits, have never been surpassed to this day. 

At Winnebago City also they had a celebration. It was held in 
a large rustic booth erected for the occasion. Guy K. Cleveland 
delivered the oration. A great dinner was prepared by the ladies — 
"a dinner that was in everybody's mouth for years afterwards." 
Here too a great ball closed the holiday proceedings. . 

DANCING. 

Without intending to discuss this subject, or express any opin- 
ion upon it, being beyond the purview of this work, it is necessary 
that something be said in relation to it here, as connected with our 
history as a people. It may be remarked that dancing appears to 
be an amusement known among all peoples and to have been prac- 
ticed in all ages of the world. The grossest and most ignorant, as 
well as many of the most refined and intellectual people everywhere 
appear to find a pleasure in dancing. The truth of this statement, 
is evident from the fact, that the chief amusement of the American 
Indian and of the howling Cannibals of the South Sea Islands, con- 
sists in their dances, and so also, we find that in the palaces of the 
cultured capitals of Europe and America, this is with many the 
most fashionable and most fascinating entertainment. 

Dancing among the ancient Hebrews formed a part of their I'e- 
ligious ceremonies, and even in the Christian church, at an early 
period, "the dance was united with the hymn in Christian festivi- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 91 

ties." But it must be remembered that these religious dances were 
very different in their character, their forms, postures and purposes 
from the dances for amusement of these days. The religious dances 
were modest, solemn, reverent, and having the intent of divine 
worship, while the modern, fashionable dance is but a social amuse- 
ment and without a religious sentiment or purpose, and too often 
borders on the indelicate, the voluptious and sensual, and too often 
brings into close, personal contact and association, the pure minded 
with the immoral, in such manner as would not be allowed for an 
instant anywhere but in a ball room. But the views of people differ 
on these subjects and we shall not discuss them here. 

Dancing is one of the chief social pastimes, or amusements, of 
most frontier or sparcely settled countries. In the early days of 
this county, that is, during the first five or six years, this was the 
principal amusement of the people. The excuse is found, if any 
is necessary, in the fact that there were no other social recreations 
or entertainments to be had. There was no established society. 
No libraries or reading rooms. No lectures and no concerts. No 
societies or other literary or social institutions to afford entertain- 
ment or instruction. During much of the time, even public religious 
services were infrequent. 

People will have social gatherings and they will have recrea- 
tions and entertainments of some kind. 

Hence it was that all assemblages of the people, for any except 
religious purposes, were signalized by a dance as the proper clos- 
ing exercises, if it did not constitute the principal business itself. 
The music in those days was made by one or more violinists and 
the dances were the cotillion, waltz, polka, schottish, French four 
and some few others now forgotten. 

In the villages of Blue Earth City and Winnebago City, during 
the winter evenings, there would be at least one dance a week, and 
often two or three, which would be frequently attended by some of 
the people of both places, interchanging courtesies and by the folks 
from the country. The middle aged as well as the young, the 
sober as well as the gay, would participate. They continued gen- 
erally not only to the "wee sma hours ayant the twal" but often all 
night "till broad day light in the morning." Many persons took 
part in these dances, with great ease and grace and exactness of 
time, who today would not be suspicioned of ever having seen a 
ball room. All seemed to enjoy themselves and everything was 
conducted with decency and politeness. There were no stately 
formalities. No uncomfortable restraints, no division into classes 
of upper ten and lower million. Fine dress, or calico gown, broad 
cloth coat, or "baggin" trousers created no distinctions, but all 
joined with hearty cheerfulness, for what was called "a good social 



92 HISTORY OF 

time" the prevading sentiment, being well expressed in those 
spirited lines of Byron. 

"On with the dance, let joy Ik- um-nnllned; 
No sleep till luom when youth and pleasure meet 
To chase the ^'lowintr hours with tlying foetl"' 
But not the villages alone had their dances. Many a log cabin 
with its "puncheon'" floor in the country in those early days rang 
with the "sound of revelry by night" where from far and near would 
be gathered "fair women and brave men," in all sorts of toilets, 
who obeyed the injunction of that other eminent poet, Joshua B., 
in the following stanza: 

"Now Kalhcr round the kitchen Are, 
And pile the chunlvs on hier and higher; 
Get out the old llddle and partners choose, 
And shal<(' her down in your cow-hide shoes." 
It may be observed that generally, as people grow older and 
have the benefit of wider observation and more extended knowl- 
edge, the view.s they entertained of dancing in their youth, become 
greatly changed and they come to look upon this amusement as 
frivolous and as inimical to physical and moral health. 

BUSINESS. 

On the 5th day of July the county boai'd met and as they had 
neglected at the January session to choose a chairman for the year, 
they now proceeded to that weighty business and C.,W. Wilson 
was raised to the dignity of chairman. At the next session of the 
board held August 25th, the rate of tax was fixed at one-fourth of 
one per cent, for county purposes, to which was added by law one- 
half of one per cent, for state purposes, making but three-fourths 
of one per cent, as the entire rate of the first tax levied in this 

county. 

THE FIRST ASSESSMENT. 

The assessors returns were all made the latter part of August, 
and as this was the first assessment in the county, the following 
table of the valuations is of interest. 

DISTRICT NO. 1, WINXEnAOO CITY. 

Ileal Estate $71 ,453 

Personal Estate 27,774 $99,227 Tax 8744 54 

DISTKICT NO. 2, BLUE EAKTU CITY. 

Real Estate $82,711 

Personal Estate 30,451 $113,162 Tax $849.52 

DISTRICT NO. 3, WALNUT LAKE. 

Real Estate $12,743 

Personal Estate 9,539^ 822,282 Tax $167.15 

$2."i4,671 $1,701.21 

The State realized from this assessment $1,174.14, and the 
county the sum of i?587.07. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 93 

THE HARVEST. 

The harvest throughout the state was not abundant, and in this 
county was very little. No surplus was yet raised for export and 
the home prices of farm products were very low. The year was a 
discouraging one for the farmer and consequently for everyone else, 
for there is no permanent success in business of any kind in a merely 
agricultural community, unless the farmer is first prosperous. The 
tiller of the soil is the first and principal producer of wealth ; others 
are in the main but exchangers and consumers, and the farmers suc- 
cess or failure is the success or failure of the community. 

HARD TIMES. 

The early years of Faribault county were characterized by the 
want of money. This is doubtless true of most new countries, but 
it was peculiarly so of this county; New settlements are almost al- 
ways poor in money, because all the money brought in by immi- 
grants is at once invested in permanent, fixed property and improve- 
ments and some years must necessarily pass before such communi- 
ties produce any surplus, from which they can get any money. 
Capital is more needed and its benefits more apparent in the first 
settlement of a country than ever after, for the country being new 
produces nothing, yet everything in the way of improvement is an 
immediate necessity. Formerly many years were passed by the 
settlers of the new territories, in a state of semi-barbarism for the 
want of schools, churches, railroads, even common roads and brid- 
ges, the security of local governments, society and many other bles- 
sings of civilized life, because of the lack of capital. Of late years, 
however, in many instances in the settlement of the new countries, 
capital goes with the settler and in a comparatively few years, all 
the conveniences of an old settled country are enjoyed. To add to 
the natural causes of poverty here the great commercial revulsion of 
1857, reduced the prices of land everywhere, crippled commerce and 
all industries and immigrants who came into this county, about this 
time, came with less money of course, than they would otherwise 
have done. The greater part of the money in circulation from the 
first settlement of the county, until 1861, was gold and silver, but in 
small quantities. Bank paper was greatly depreciated. A bushel 
basket full of it might be worth something and might not — most 
probably not. 

Money became exceedingly scarce and in the year of which we 
write it was loaned at from thirty to sixty per cent, on mortgage 
security. There is no legitamate business that can pay such rates, 
and a whole community burdened with them, is not benefitted — can- 
not be in any view of the case. Neither the productive powers 
of the soil, nor the commercial advantages of any community in 



04 HISTORY OF 

existence, can endure it long and prosper. The inevitable evil 
results always follow. The country is drained of its money to pay 
iutei'est to nonresidents, instead of being expended in permanent 
improvements. Lands taken in good faith as the homestead of the 
settler, finally passes into the hands of the money loaner and the 
borrower becomes bankrupt and must commence life anew. For 
many years this county has borne a heavy burden in this respect. 
Loans at such exorbitant rates of interest were made in this county 
as early as 1857, but in the year of which we now write, became 
more general and continued for many years thereafter. Thousands 
of acres of land were preempted in this county, the pre-emptors 
getting the means to do so at thirty and forty per cent, by secur- 
ing the debt on the lands, and other thousands of acres were mort- 
gaged for money at these high rates for other purposes, and much 
of such lands were subsequently sold in payment of the debts 
under mortgage foreclosure and were never redeemed by the mort- 
gagors. Owing to the productiveness of our soil, the healthfulness 
of the climate and the energy of the people, the evil effects of these 
things were not so great even here, as in some other sections of the 
country. The effects to some extent in this, as well as in some 
other features of the financial crash, had just reached us in this 
year and hard times began, but this year did not see the worst of 
it, as we shall see subsequently. 

THE COMET. 

Let us turn now for a moment from the affairs of earth, to the 
innumerable worlds in the vast expanse above us. Behold 1 how the 
heavens do "declare the glory of God." In September of this year 
Donati"s comet visited our heavens and excited the admiration and 
wonder and perhaps the fears of some of its beholders. This 
comet, though smaller than some others, exceeded almost all others 
in the brilliancy of its head. It passed its perihelion, or nearest 
point to the sun, approaching within 55,000,000 of miles on the 29th 
of September and was nearest the earth, within 52,000,000 of miles, 
on the 12th of October. Its train was estimated to be 51,000,000 of 
miles in length and its period over 2,000 years. 

These singular bodies, have for thousands of years, been looked 
upon with dread by the great mass of the inhabitants of the earth. 
They have been considered ominous of the wrath of heaven and the 
harbingers of wars, pestilence and famine, the downfall of monarchs 
and the destruction of empires. Nor were these opinions always 
confined to the unlearned. The eminent writer, Farrar, says that "It 
is conceded by manj' wise and candid observers, even by the great 
Niebuhr, the last man in the world'to be carried away by credulity, 
or superstition, that great catastrophies and unusual phenomena 



FAETBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 95 

in nature, have as a matter of fact — however we may choose to in- 
terpret such a fact — synchronized in a remarkable manner, with 
great events in liuman history." But science has greatly divested 
these phenomena of their terrors. Yet what important ends comets 
are designed to accomplish in the economy of the universe, what 
regions they visit when they pass beyond our vision, "On the long 
travel of a thousand years," or what are their exact physical const- 
itution, are questions beyond the powers of human knowledge even 
now to answer. Oh Omnipotent Creator and Governor of all things! 
Are these the messengers of thy wrath, or thy mercy! 

The mention of this brilliant visitor, which filled the evening 
skies with splendor, recalls the eloquent words in reference to it, of 
that great scholar and statesman, Edward Everett. These are his 
admirable words : 

"Return, thou mysterious traveller, to the depths of the heavens, never 
again to be seen by the eyes of men now living! Thou hast run thy race v?ith 
glory: millions of eyes have gazed upon thee viilh wonder; but they shall never 
look upon thee again. Since thy last appearance in the lower skies, empires' 
languages, and races of men have passed away; the Macedonian, the Alexan- 
drian, the Augustan, the Parthian, the Byzantine, the Saracenic, the Ottoman 
dynasties sunk or sinking into the gulf of ages. Since thy last appearance, old 
continents have relapsed into ignorance, and new worlds have come out from 
behind the veil of waters, the Magian flres are quenched on the hiil-tops of 
Asia; the Chaldean seer is blind; the Egyptian hierogrammatist has lost his 
cunning; the oracles are dumb. Wisdom now dwells in furtherest Thule, or in 
newly-discovered worlds beyond the sea. Haply when wheeling up again from 
the celestial abysses, thou art once more seen by the dwellers on earth, the 
languages we speak shall also be forgotten, and science shall have fled to the 
uttermost corners of the earth. But even then His Hand, thao now marks out 
thy wondrous circuit, shall still guide thy course; and then as now Hesper will 

smile at thy approach and Arcturus and his sons rejoice at thy coming." 

• 

THE FIRST COUNTY ORDERS. 

On the 15th of September, the county board directed the issue 
of the flrst county orders. They amounted to 1171.40. 

County orders have fluctuated in value, greatly, in this county. 
For many years they were under par, sometimes getting as low as 
twenty-five cents on the dollar and were held at various prices, at 
various times, up to a dollar. For some years past they have been 
l^ar and will continue so, doubtless, but they have never been known 
to command a premium. 

It is exceedingly poor economy in the county authorities to per- 
mit such a condition of the county finances as will cause county 
orders or warrants to get below par. All services rendered for the 
county must very soon be paid at a price advanced just in propor- 
tion to the depreciation of county orders. 

Thus services worth one hundred dollars costs the county just 
two hundred dollars, if paid in orders worth fifty cents on the dollar, 



96 HISTORY OF 

and such has been the actual fact in this county. And it is stated 
as a historical fact that this county and many others in the State 
have paid thousands of dollars in excess of what they should have 
paid had a correct policy been pursued. On the one hand all public 
expenses should be kept down to the minimnm and the people 
should exercise more vigilence than they do. in seeing that their 
servants make no unnecessary expenses and then on the other hand, 
as a part of a correct financial system, it should be required that an 
amply sufficient tax should be levied each year to meet at once all 
claims against the school district, the town and the county, on pre- 
sentation. 

Large sums of money would thus be saved, the taxes lessened 
and the public faith and credit preserved. 

THE FALL ELECTION. 

The Republican County Convention for this year was held at 
Blue Earth City, and made the following nominations: 

For Representatives — Geo. D. McArthur, of Elmore; J. A. Lat- 
imer, of Winnebago City. 

For Register of Deeds — J. A. Kiester. 

For Judge of Probate — Guy K. Cleveland. 

The other republican candidate for Representative was A. B. 
Webber, of Freeborn County, nominated by the convention of that 
county. ,; 

Tlie Democratic candidates were: 

For Representatives — Jo. L. Weir, of Winnebago City; Jas. L. 
McCrery. of Blue Earth City. 

For Register of Deeds — Jno. M. Jackson Jr. 

For Judge of Probate — Andrew C. Dunn. 

The other democratic candidate for Representative was J. W. 
Heath, of Freeborn county. 

The chief "bone of contention" in this election was the office of 
Register of Deeds. It was commonly understood that no legislature 
would meet the ensuing winter and the contest for representatives 
was therefore, but slight, though some canvassing was done by the 
candidates. 

The election was held on the 12th day of October, and the fol- 
lowing was the vote cast in this county: 

For Representatives — A. B. Webber had 191 votes; Geo. D. Mc 
Arthur had 187; J. A. Latimer, 190; J. W. Heath had 101; J. L. 
Weir, 109; J. L. McCrery, 113. 

For Register of Deeds — J. A. Kiester had 215 votes and Jno. M, 
Jackson Jr. had 83. 

For Judge of Probate — Guy K. Cleveland had 175 votes and 
Andrew C. Dunn had 112. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 97 

The whole republican ticket, both in the county and district 
was elected. 

TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION. 

By Act passed August 13th, the Legislature instituted a new- 
system of County Government and provided for township organiza- 
tion. In pursuance of this act, the Governor a^jpointed Andrew C. 
Dunn, Jas. S. Latimer and R. P. Jenness, commissioners to divide 
the county into towns and name them, jireparatory to organization. 
The commissioners met at Winnebago City on the 27th of Septem- 
ber, and performed their duties under the act. In October the town- 
ship organization went into effect. A fuller statement of this mat- 
ter is found in another part of this history. 

THE COUNTY BOARD AGAIN. 

The commissioners met October 4, but did nothing of public in- 
terest, and on the 28th day of October they met again and for the 
last time, as they were superseded by a new authority instituted 
by the township organization act, known as the board of county su- 
pervisors. The commissioners at this last meeting approved an 
official bond and then adjourned sine die. Probably as this was the 
last meeting of the old board, they would have done something ap- 
propriate to the occasion had they known that they were making 
history. However, the clerk of the board appears to have appreci- 
ated the solemnity of the event and after the adjournment entered 
of record the following remarks:— "For about three years this board 
has managed the affairs of the county, and of those who constituted 
the board, it is but just to say, that they have ever given the best 
satisfaction, and always had the confidence of the people. May the 
power that succeeds them, ever regard the real interests of the 
county, and be dilligent in their labors to promote them." 

Although the times were hard, and the weather during a large 
part of the year very unfavorable, quite anumberof men of enterprise 
and of some capital became residents of the county this year and 
many substantial improvements wei-e made. In those days persons 
coming into the county, usually came first to the villages to make 
inquiries as to the most eligible lands to be had, and for some years 
residents of the villages spent much time, and that without fee or re- 
ward, in showing vacant lands to the newcomers. During the first 
two or three years immigrants were very exacting, and must have 
claims with at least eighty acres of timber and living water, with 
good pi-airie adjoining. Subsequently they were satisfied with from 
forty down to ten acres of timber, with liviag water and good 
prairie for the balance of the claim. Afterwards their demands 
were satisfied with simply good prairie and running water— then to 
be near the timber and streams, and finally they were glad to get 



98 HISTORY OF 

claims far out on the prairies. It was long thought that the prai- 
ries, beyond four or five miles from the limber, would probably 
never be settled, or if so, at a very late day. Yet but a few years 
passed and the prairies were all dotted over with the cabins of set- 
tlers, and to-day many of the largest and best farms in the county 
are located far out on these very prairies. Lands in those days 
were taken under the pre-emption laws, the homestead laws not hav- 
ing yet been passed. They cost one dollar and twenty-five cents per 
acre. An actual residence upon the land for a certain length of 
time, the erection of a dwelling and some other improvements 
were required before the pre-emptor could "prove up' as it was 
called, or in other words pay up and get title to the land. Actual 
settlers usually complied with the letter and spirit of the law, but 
there was always a floating population that sought to preempt these 
lands by a veiy imperfect compliance with the pre-emption laws, and 
there were many very imperfect preemptions. Consciences were 
often very elastic. 

To make a colorable compliance with the law, various subter- 
fuges and pretences were resorted to, some of which were quite in- 
genious and amusing. In one instance some four quarter sections 
were pre-empted by four young men, who remained in the country 
but a few days and had for a house four rails, which they laid 
together in the form of a square and called it a house, which they 
moved from one quarter to another, sleeping within the enclosure one 
night on each quarter. A few grape vines stretched around a small 
tract, was called a fence. In another instance a small company of 
pre-empters erected a house 16 by 24, having two doors and four 
windows, which they moved from one to the other of their respec- 
tive claims for pre emption purposes. The house was 16 by 24 inches 
and 12 inches high. 

One made proof that he had a house on the land having a stone 
foundation and a board lloor and this was, in fact, a shanty built of 
poplar poles, each corner of which rested on a small stone and the 
floor was the earth, in which the pre-empter had bored a hole — it 
was a bored floor. Often the I'esidence on the land, re(iuired by law, 
was deemed complied with, in the mind of the pre-emptor, if he had 
spent a Sunday on the land hunting ducks. 

But little remains to add to the record of this j'ear. It may 
be noted as the most uneventful and in some respects, the most un- 
profitable in the history of the county, and the record is soon written. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 99 



CHAPTER V. 

A. D. 1859. 

No session of the legislature was held in the winter of 1858-9, 
mainly owing to the protracted session of 1857-8, which rendered 
another following so soon, unnecessary. Representatives had been 
elected the preceding fall, as will be remembered, but their services 
were never required. There is, therefore, no legislation for this 
year to note here. 

The second State legislature assembled in December of this 
year. Some reference thereto, will be found in the history of 1860. 

THE COUNY SUPERVISORS. 

It has been seen that the old board of county commissioners 
held their last meeting on the 28th of October, 1858, and were then 
superseded by the new boai'd of county supervisors. This latter 
board was composed of the chairmen of the several boards of town 
supervisors. Under this new arrangement the new board consisted 
of ten members. On the third day of January, the new board met 
at Blue Earth City, but six members appearing, however, as several 
of the town districts had failed to organize. A quorum being pres- 
ent, they proceeded to organize by electing James L. McCrery, 
chairman, and Arthur Bonwell, clerk. 

The session lasted three days and much business was transacted, 
among the most important of which was the division of the county 
into fifteen school districts. During the existence of this board, the 
business was transacted much in the manner usual in legislative 
bodies. There was a standing commiitee of three on school dis- 
tricts, a committee on roads and bridges, and a committee on claims. 
Special committees also were appointed occasionally, and questions 
were discussed in committee of the whole. The committees reported 
to the board, when final action was taken. 

THE SPRING 

The spring of this year, like its predecessor, was late and cold. 
The snows of the winter were deep and the spring thaws and rains 
caused high waters and almost impassable roads. But little grain 
was sown until quite late in April, all of which was quite discour- 



100 BTSTOnv (IF 

aging to the people. The great majority of tVie people, until after 
harvest, were wretchedly "hard up." The previous j'ear the crops 
were light, and the bread and feed during the winter, and the seed- 
ing of this year, had about used up the products of 1858. The fol- 
lowing extract from the journal of an old resident of Blue Earth 
City, gives a rather gloomy statement of the condition of the county 
in March, about the middle of which month il was written. "We 
have, as a community, arrived at a period more depressing finan- 
cially, and fuller of gloomy forebodings, than anj' other in the his- 
tory of this section of country. There is no money in the country. 
Provisions are very scarce and very high. 

There is no building, improvements or business of any kyid in 
progress. Many families are almost and some quite out of such 
articles of food as are necessary to support life. In the country, 
the farmers can do nothing yet of spring work. In the villages men 
stand idly about the streets, or sit in small companies about the 
shops and stores, listless and cheerless, and appear to be filled with 
apprehensions of a yet worse state of affairs to come. The times 
will doubtless be 'harder' before the new crops are harvested. But 
it is said 'The darkest hour is just before the break of day,' and it 
may be, that in three or four months, every department of business 
may be active, provisions plenty, and money to be had more easily 
than at present. 'It is never best to give up in despair.'" 

THE DISTRICT COURT. 

The first term of the District Court held in this county com- 
menced its session on the 4th day of April of this year. The officers 
of the court were, Hon. Lewis Branson, Judge; Geo. B. Kingsley, 
Clerk, and Geo. H. Goodnow, Sheriff. There were seven civil and 
two criminal cases on the calendar. The attendance on the court 
was largo, many coming out of curiosity, and the term was a very 
respectable one. A more full account of this term is given else- 
where. It is sufticientto say here, that the law was now established 
in the county, and its supremacy acknowledged. There was a tri- 
bunal in the county where wrongs could be righted and rights en- 
forced — the time when every man was "a law unto himself," had 
passed away and another step forward in the progress of the county 
haxi been taken. The Bill of Rights declares that "Every person is 
entitled to a certain remedy in the laws for all injuries or wrongs 
which he may receive in his person, propertj' or character; he 
ought to obtain justice freely and without purchase; completely and 
without denial; promptly and without delay; conformably to the 
laws." Constitution. 

The names on.the calendar of the attorneys appearing in the 
several cases were J. B. Wakefield, A. C. Dunn, Simeon Smith, W. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 101 

W. Knapp, J. A. Kiester and Messrs. Wilkinson and Burt. The 
Grand Jury sworn and charged, being the first ever convened in this 
county, was composed of the following gentlemen: Dr. W. N. Town- 
drow, Foreman; E. Crosby, Wm. Phillips, T. Bally, J. S. Latimer, 
G. A. Weir, S. L. Rugg, Jas. Sherlock, B. Gray, A. Morris, A. J. 
Barber, E. B. Kendall, G. D. Mc Arthur, John Beidle, W. W. Sleep- 
ier, O. G. Hill, H. A. Paunce, W. Seely, Jas. Decker, S. A. Safford, 
H. L. Young, S. B. Hamilton and T. Bowen. 

No more respectable Grand Jury than this first one has ever 
assembled in this county. 

The first Petit Jury sworn was composed of the following 
named gentlemen: Aaron J. Rose, Aaron Mudge, Dr. R. P. Jenness, 
Dr. J. P. Humes, Martin Sailor, O. Webster, W. Ladd, James Prior. 
Jas. L. McCrery, J. Edwards, H. Chesley and J. Burk. And many 
very respectable petit juries have sat in this county since that day 
and pronounced their verdicts, but none more able, intelligent or 
conscientious than the first. They were "good and lawful men." 
The writer is sorry to have to record the fact that the first verdict 
rendered in this county was that short and terrible word "guilty." 
The term lasted five days and the business disposed of was con- 
siderable. 

Courts are usually conducted with much solemnity and dignity, 
but some very amusing incidents occur occasionally, and here is 
one. 

Our pronouns are apt to get mixed, as the following, which is reported from 
the Pacific slope. A policeman was being examined as a witness against an 
Irishman whom he had brought before the local court. After the officer had 
told his story, the judge inquired.— • 

"What did the man say when you arrested him?" 

"He said he was drunk.'' 

"I want his precise words, just as ho uttered them. He did not use the 
pronoun he, did he?" 

"Oh yes, he didi He said he was drunki He acknowledged the corni" 

"You don't understand me at all. J want the words as he uttered them. 
Did he say, '/was drunk?' " 

"Oh no, your Honor, he didn't say you was drunk. I wouldn't allow any 
man to charge that upon you in my presencel" 

"A fledgling lawyer, occupying a seat in court, here desired to air his powers, 
and said, "Pshawl you don't comprehend at all. His Honor means, did the 
prisoner say to you, '/ was drunk?' " 

"Waal, he might have said you was drunk, but I didn't hear him." 

"What the court desires," said another lawyer, "is to have you state the 
prisoner's own words, preserving the precise form of the pronoun he made use 
of in the reply. Was it in the first person 2; second person f/ioit or yow; or In 
the third person /le, s/ie or i(.' Now then, sir, did not the prisoner say, '/ was 
drunk?' " 

"No, he didn't say you was drunk, neither. D'yer supposes the poor fellow 
charged the whole court with being drunk?'' 



102 HISTORY OF 

THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

On llie 'Jth day of April of this year an important event 
occurred at Winnebago City. This was nothing less than the organ- 
ization of the Faribault County Agricultural Societi'. The minutes 
of the proceedings are given entire, as taken from the Secretary's 
book that they may be preserved for future use. This book was 
once lost for a period of about seven years, and was at last found 
among a lot of rubbish in the County Auditor's office. It is well to 
transcribe into this history, what is of interest in the book, as its 
next disappearance may be final. Besides the organization of the 
society and its subsequent proceedings are items of importance, in 
the history of the county. In the long future when the members of 
the society shall assemble around the banqueting board, spread in 
the spacious and decorated halls situated in the beautiful grounds of 
the society, to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the or- 
ganization, every scrap of the early history of the society will be 
prized as of a value we little comprehend now, and to the brave 
spirits of that distant time, none of the exercise of the occasion will 
possess more interest than the reading of the following minutes: 

SECRETARY'S REPORT. 

WiNNKKAOo City, April 9, A. D. 1859. 

In accordance with previous notice the inhabitants of Faribault County 
assembled at Winnebago City to form a County Agricultural Society. 

On motion, G. H. Goodnow was called to the chair and D. H. Morse was 
chosen secretary. 

On motion a committee of three was appointed to draft a constitution. 
G. K. Cleveland,. H. II. Bigelow and A. B. Ralcom were appointed said com- 
mittee. The following orticers were then electi.'d by acclamation to act until 
the next meeting, when permanent ollicers shall be elected. 

J. A. Latimer was duly elected president. 

W. J. C. Robertson and Amos Preston, vice-presidents. 

G. K. Cleveland, correspijnding secretary. 

D. H. Morse, recording secretary. 

J. S. Latimer, auditor. 

A. B. Balcom, treasurer. 

On motion, the election of other officers was deferred until the next 
quarterly meeting. 

G. K. Cleveland, H. H. Bigelow and A. B. Balcom were appointed a com- 
mittee to report, at the next meeting, liy-laws for the society. 

On motion the secretary was instructed to notify Messrs. Latimer and 
Preston of their election, and to cause tlie proceedings of this meeting to be 
published in the Mankato '•Independent.'' 

G. K. Cleveland offered the following resolution which was adopted. 

"Whereas it is of the tlrst importance to the farmers of Faribault County 
to raise superior stock, and to obtain seeds and grain of the best (lualily (in 
order) to encourage immigration, and to make this beautiful county what less 
fertile states of the east already are--"a land llowing with milk and honey." 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 103 

"Therefore, Kestjived, That we will encourage the importatioQ of blooded 
stock and the introduction of choice seeds, grain and fruit trees, by buying of 
the farmer or merchant who will keep the same for sale. 

"2nd. That every member of this society should at once go to work to 
make or raise something rare to compete for a premium at our county fair 
next fall. 

"3rd. That county agricultural fairs stimulate enterprise and awaken 
emulation among farmers, and that as farmers, we are proud of our county, and 
proclaim it second to none in the State in the fertility and breadth and beauty 
of its farming lands, and that we cordially invite all who are seeking locations 
to make a home with us." 

On motion the society adjourned until the second Wednesday of June, 
A. D. 1859. 

D. H. Morse, Secretary.. 

After the minutes there appeared the following list of the first 
members of the society: 

Andrew C. Dunn, A. B. Balcom, W. W. Sleepier, J. S. Latimer, 
D. H. Morse, H. H. Bigelow, G. K. Cleveland, G. H. Goodnow, J. 
P. Humes, S. S. Wiltsey, Wm. Ladd, G.C.Burt, Jesse Dunham, 
Jas. Sherlock, Loyal Dudley, W. J. C. Robertson, J. A. Latimer, 
A. Preston, J. L. Weir, Geo. M. Patton. T. J. Maxson, W. W. Seely, 
R. P. Jenness, W. N. Towndrow, J. H. Welch, J. B. Chaple, L. W. 
Brown, A. D. Mason, A. D GrifBe. 

It may be observed that with one or two exceptions, all of the 
first members of the society were residents of the northern portion 
of the county. This was owing mainly to the fact of the meeting 
being called in that part of the county. Subsequently residents in 
all parts of the county became members, and took an active interest 
in the welfare of the society. 

On the 8th of June, according to adjournment, the society held 
a meeting at Winnebago City, for permanent organization. A con- 
stitution and by laws were then adopted, and permanent officers 
elected as follows: J. A. Latimer, president, and W. J. C. Robert- 
son and Amos Preston, vice-presidents; D. H. Morse, recording, and 
G. K. Cleveland, corresponding secretaries; J. L. Weir, auditor 
and R. P. Jenness, treasurer. 

The following board of councilmen,being one from each town dis- 
trict, was then chosen: Allen Shultis, Charles Marples, H. T. Stod- 
dard, Thomas Blair, H. M. Huntington, Albin Johnson, P. C. Seely, 
S. L. Rugg, J. L. McCrery and Lorenzo Merry. A long list of 
additional members was reported at this meeting, and the society 
was now fully organized under very favorable auspices. 

Agriculture and its kindred industries is and must ever of neces- 
sity continue to be the leading and most important pursuit of the 
people of this county. It is essentially an agricultural country. 
Our manufactures can never be very extensive, though they can be 
profitably extended beyond what they now are. But to compensate 



104 HISTORY OF 

for the want of commercial and manufacturing facilities we have a 
most fertile soil, and plenty of it, and the future wealth of the 
county must come mainly from this source. The sooner, therefore, 
our people realize tiieso facts and direct tlieir energies to the fos- 
tering and development of our agricultural interests, the sooner 
will they be prosperous. And it is the duty of every resident of the 
county, whatever his occupation may be, to do what he can to 
encourage this industry. There are many ways of doing so, by 
word and deed. 

Among other things, our agricultural society should be patron- 
ized and the annual fairs of the society should be looked forward to 
and prepared for as a matter of the first importance. Every one, 
whatever his business, should take an interest in it, contribute 
something, if only his presence, and assist in making a success of 
every fair 

Other societies, farmers" clubs, stock associations and the like, 
designed to promote and protect this greatest of all interests should 
be favored. The establishment of convenient markets in the county, 
and facilities for the sale of all farm products, where some degree of 
fair dealing may be found, and where sharpers and jjlausable scoun- 
drels, who with impudent assurance and hands full of Chicago re- 
l^orts gamble with the fruits of tlie farmers' labors are not the 
chief figures, should have attention. The introduction of the best 
breeds of stock and the most successful varieties of seetl grain, ex- 
periments to test the character of our soils and the adaptation of 
various products to the soil and climate, the support of our agricul- 
tural schools, the circulation of newspapers, periodicals and books, 
devoted to agriculture and kindred subjects, should be encouraged. 

It is a well-known fact that the system of farming pursued in 
one country is not always successful in another, even of the same 
latitude. Every considerable district of country has its own pecu- 
liar system of farming, which experience has proved to be the best 
for that locality. In one district it may be stock raising, horses, 
cattle, hogs; in another, wool growing; in another, dairying; in 
others, mainly grain raising and in some localities, all of these. The 
fact has been illustrated here that people going into a new country 
are apt to take with them and put in practice, the system of hus- 
bandry, in the main, which they learned in the place from which 
they came, and failure often resulted. It was hard to get out of the 
old ways. The first question should be, what is the system of farm- 
ing best adapted to this soil and climate? It has already been 
proved in the experience of many here, that exclusive grain raising 
is not profitable. There are, in fact, few countries in which it is safe 
to be dependent on one class of products. And it has been well 
established here, as it has been generally elsewhere, that diversified 
farming industries are usually the most successful. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 105 

A word should be said here in reference to that superficial and 
wholly erroneous idea entertained by certain classes, that agricul- 
ture is a simple and unimportant pursuit. A very silly practice has 
grown up among the newspapers, especially in the cities, of making 
derogatory, but supposed witty remarks about farming and in re- 
lation to farmers. The farmer is called "jiumplvin eater," "old tur- 
nip," "old hayseed." etc. , and caricatures are made of him repre- 
senting him in old fashioned clothes, outlandish hat, great cowhide 
boots, with his trowser legs, if not shown as too short, crowded into 
his boot tops, and having a great ox gad in his hands and his coun- 
tenance and general appearance those of a grotesque simpleton. 
Farmers, as a class, are no more amenable to such characterization 
than men of other occupations, and as there is neither wit nor wis- 
dom in the practice, it should be abandoned. Where the cultivation 
of the soil is looked upon with contempt, or as a calling beneath the 
attention of men of education and standing, it will soon drift into 
the hands of those who are without means and of small capacity, to 
the great public detriment. What are the facts'? 

The cultivation of the soil was man's original, first employment, 
and it is just as important and honorable now, as it was then. It is 
not only essential to the well-being of society in a rude state, but is 
equally necessary in every stage of progress and refinement. 

All other occupations— life and prosperity rest upon this as 
their basis, and it gives life and energy to all other pursuits and in- 
dustries. Without it they could not exist. The farmer is the pri- 
mary producer — tlie creator of the real wealth of the world. It is 
he that supplies the civilized world with its food, and it is he that 
stands at the doors of the world's graneries with the keys in his 
hands. 

His calling employs more workers than any other business, and 
the real and most permanent wealth of every civilized country, is in 
its farms and farming interests. All the nations of antiquity, which 
were celebrated for their progress in agriculture, were the most 
free and independent. Such is the fact today. No nation can 
afford to be so independent of the rest of the world, as a successful 
agricultural people. 

Many of the illustrious men in all ages of tlie world have en- 
gaged in this calling, and have not deemed it derogatory to their 
dignity in the least. We may mention Gideon, the renowned 
champion and judge of Israel, who went from his threshing floor to 
preside in the assemblies of his people; Cincinnatus the great Ro- 
man, who left his plow to lead the armies to battle and victory, and 
then returned to his native fields. In later times this calling has 
been held in high esteem by the greatest and best. Washington, 
Jefferson, Madison. Monroe and Jaclison, among the Presidents, 



106 HISTORY OF ■ 

and other illustrious citizens of our country, engaged directly in 
this pursuit. Many of the respectable and cultured men of Europe 
and America — men eminent in the walks of science and literature- 
take a most active interest in the progress of agriculture, attend 
the meetings of farmers, the public fairs, and assist in the promo- 
tion of agricultural interests. 

It is an error, too, that education and culture are not necessary 
in this vocation. The truth is, that there is as much use for educa- 
tion, general intelligence and good judgment in this business, as in 
any other, and more of these qualifications are required in this, than 
in most merely mechanical occupations, and education and culture 
are as much entitled to honor, when brought to this pursuit, as to 
any other branch of human labor. There is indeed no more useful, 
or more honorable occupation known among men in any country 
than that of farming. 

It is indeed true, that the active, successful farmer, is the re- 
presentative of continuous hard labor year in and year out. Almost 
everything about farming both indoors and out, smacks strong of 
work and much of it, hard work, requiring close personal attention. 
The old lines express a general truth in the statement that 

"He that V)y the plow would thrive, 
lliniself must either hold or drive." 

And this vocation has its disappointments, trials, losses and 
perplexities, but so has every other business. No occu^pation, pro- 
fession or official station are without these labors, cares and haras- 
sing anxieties, and some of them have more of these, and coupled 
with greater temptations, dangers and risks than farming. 

We look upon this occupation not only as equal in dignity and 
imi^ortance with any other, but as having some peculiar advantages. 

The farmer has his i-ewards and successes, that often pay largely, 
and at all events, he rarely fails of a living at least. 

The man of no other business, is so free and independent in his 
personal action, and no employment is more healthful, or more con- 
ducive to a vigorous, manly and ingenious character. His labors too 
are greatly diversified and free fi-om the ceaseless treadmill grind 
of most vocations. He is too further removed from the corruptions 
and errors of society, the vices, the follies of the town than the men 
of other employments. He need not practice the petty frauds and 
cheats and shams too current in many other occupations, and in 
short there is no field of human employment in which a man can 
easier be "a good man and true, and strictly obey the moral law" and 
be a peaceable citizen "work diligently, live creditably and act hon- 
orably by all men." 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 107 

In closing these observations, we cannot do better than quote 
the following admirable words, talien from a great speech once de- 
livered by Senator Pendleton, of Ohio. 

"Farmer life! Freedom from the noise and turmoil and dust and smoke of 
the crowded city; freedom from the daily struggle and daily anxiety for bread; 
freedom from competition with the crowds which throng every avenue of com- 
mercial and mechanical industry; freedom from the close and daily contact with 
vice and crime which the temptations and opportunities and sufferings of a 
city life develop; freedom from the small rooms, the crowded tenement houses, 
the tainted atmosphere, the contagious diseases, the unnatural hours, the un- 
due excitement, the exhausting pleasures, the glittering splendor, the abject 
squallor, the artificial life of the city— and in their stead the pure air, the 
abundant food, the deep sleep, the refreshing dews, the cool breezes, the peace- 
ful order, the ample homes, the healthful habits, the cleanliness, the content- 
ment of the country and that great exaltation of spirit which springs from the 
contemplation of the beauties of nature and the processes of its active benefl- 
cense — the absence of the shrewd cunning and the acute sense which the com- 
petition of trade engenders, and the presence of that large-hearted greatness 
■with which our mother earth rewards those who call on her munificence for 
the returns of their labor.'' 

"In ancient times the sacred plow employed 
The kings and awful fathers of mankind, 
And some compared with whom your insect tribes 
Are but the beings of a summer day, 
Have held the scale of empire, ruled the storm 
Of mighty war; then with unwearied hand 
Disdaining little delicacies, seized 
The plow, and greatly independent lived."' 

THE COUNTY LEGISLATURE. 

The supervisors met on the second day of May. As a new 
board had been elected at the town meetings in April, the board 
was re-organized by the election of Geo. H. Goodnow, chairman, 
Mr. Bonwell continuing as clerk. They had a session of two days, 
but transacted no business of interest to us at this remote iDeriod. 
On the 30th of May, they re-convened, and among the business done 
was the appropriation of the sum of three hundred dollars for the 
erection of a jail. Here was another evidence of progress in the 
right direction, but the appropriation subsequently failed. 

THE FOURTH. 

There were no celebrations in this county on the 4th of July, 
1859. The spirit of patriotism had frozen up. The day was stormy, 
rain with some sleet and hail falling most of the day, and it was so 
cold that fires were necessary to comfort. Heat and dust are just 
as necessary elements of a fourth of July celebration as lemonade 
and fire crakers, and they could not be had on that day in this 
county. 



108 HISTOIiY OF 



PROCiRESS— CHOPS. 



The immigration to this county during the spring and summer 
and the amount of subtstantial improvements, especially in the 
breaking up of new land, were considerable. The crops of the year 
were very fair and were harvested in good season. The interesting 
fact may be stated here that the State which in 1858 imported bread- 
stutTs, in this year, for the first time, exported considerable grain. 
But there was yet nothing for export in this county, and there was 
no market for anything. Money continued scarce and the scarcity 
to intensifj'. In fact the people were thrown back to the original 
system of traffic by barter, or -exchange of one jiroduct for another. 
The condition of the country was. however, much better after 
harvest, than before, as there was then plenty to eat and there was 
some grain to exchange for necessaries, but at prices which did not 
pay for the raising. The average price of wheat after harvest and 
during the remainder of the year was thirty to forty cents, corn 
twenty-five cents, and oats fifteen cents per bushel. 

THE LOCAL A.SSEMBLY. 

The supervisors met in annual session, Sept. 13th, and contin- 
ued two days. A considerable amount of business was done, but 
nothing of general interest except certain action relative to the 
removal of «; 

THE COUNTY SEAT. 

The first action taken in relation to a change of the county 
seat was some movement made during the preceding session of 
the legislature, to secure the removal to Winnebago City, which, 
however, proved abortive. At this meeting of the county board, a 
petition was presented, asking the privilege of voting at the next 
election on the removal of the county seat, from Blue Earth City to 
Winnebago City. As the law then stood, it was the duty of the 
board, on the presentation of such a petition, if signed by a num- 
ber of legal voters of the county equal to one half the highest 
number of votes cast at the next preceding general election, to 
cause to be inserted in the notices for the next general election, an 
article requiring the voters to vote on the removal. 

The majority of the board being opposed to the removal, and to 
any action on the subject as premature, and for the further reason, 
as alleged, that the petition was not signed by a sufficient number 
of legal voters, it was after some hot discussion tabled. 

The friends of the removal then applied to the judge of the 
district court for a writ of mandamus, requiring the board to meet 
and take such action as the law required, or show cause, which writ 
was granted and duly served on all the members of the board. They 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 109 

all attended at Blue Earth City, on a certain day, but only such as 
favored the removal — not enough for a quorum — met at the usual 
place of meeting. If a quorum had at any one time gotten together, 
they could have directed the insertion of the necessary clause in 
the election notices, but the opposing members were careful to 
appear at the place of meeting one at a time, and pass out. Thus 
no quorum being present, no action was taken by the board, nor was 
cause ever shown why action was not taken. The friends of removal 
then procured a peremptory writ requiring the clerk of the board to 
insert the necessary clause in the election notices, which under the 
circumstances he peremptorily refused to do, claiming that the pro ■ 
ceeding was without authority of law, and here the whole matter 
fell to the ground. It is hardly worth the while at this late day to 
comment upon these matters. 

THE ELECTIOWS. 

Although the times were hard and money scarce, the political 
interests of the county were not neglected. The fall elections were 
approaching and there were various legislative and county offices to 
be filled, and divers individuals were ready to fill them. 

A republican county convention met at Blue Earth City and 
made the following nominations for county offices : 

For Auditor — Arthur Bonwell. 

For Treasurer — Albin Johnson. 

For Sheriff — Geo. H. Goodnow. 

For Coroner — Wm. A. Way. 

For County Surveyor — S. A. Safford. 

And G. K. Cleveland and Allen Shultis were nominated for rep- 
resentatives, and in pursuance of the arrangement heretofore re- 
ferred to, the convention of Freeborn county nominated T. W. 
Purdiefor representative and Geo. Watson for senator, both of that 
county. 

The democracy nominated H. C Lacy for senator and Isaac 
Vanderwalker for representative, both of Freeborn county, and for 
the other representatives David H. Morse and Geo. B. Kingsley, of 
of this county. The county ticket was : 

For Sheriff— H. P. Constans. 

For Treasurer — Jas. L. McCrery. 

For County Surveyor — Geo. A. Weir. 

For Auditor — Wm. N. Towndrow. 

For Coroner — A. B. Balcom. 



110 HISTOllY or 

The election was held on the 11th day of October, and resulted 
as follows: 

Votes. 

For Senator— Geo. Watson 208 

H. C. Lacy 109 

For Uepresentatlves— G. K. Cleveland 175 

A. Shultis ]f)7 

T. W. I'urdii! 203 

I. Vanderwalker 108 

D. II. Morse 122 

G. B. KlnKsley 143 

For Sheriff— G. H. Goodnow 220 

II. P. Constans 97 

For Treasurer— A. John.son 195 

J. L. McCrery 113 

For Surveyor— S. A. Safford 223 

G. A. Weir 94 

For Auditor— A. honwell 178 

W. N. Townrtrow 145 . 

For Coroner— W. A. Way 188 

A. B. Balcom 83 

The republican candidates for senator and I'epresentatives, re- 
ceiving a majority also in Freeborn county were consequently elec- 
ted. State otRcers were elected this fall and the republican 
candidates, with Alex. Ramsey for governor, at the head, were, after 
a hard struggle, elected. 

Mr. Windom was the republican and C. Graham thp democratic 
candidate for congress. Windom was elected. 

THE FIRST FAIR. 

The first fair of our newly organized agricultural society, was 
held at Winnebago City on the 5th day of October. The attendance 
was large and great interest was manifested in the occasion and the 
display of productions surpassed all expectation. This lair demon- 
strated the fact that this county, yet in its infancy, could produce as 
excellent grains, vegetables, stock, daii'y products and articles of 
domestic manufacture, as any county in the northwest. In short, 
the fair was a great success, and a great credit to the people of the 
county. The writer, a few days since, observed a large and gor- 
geous "poster" tacked up in a conspicuous place giving the world 
notice of the twenty-first annual fair of the Faribault County Agri- 
cultural Society. 

AUTUMN. 

The fall of the year was a gloomy one, both in the weather and 
the conditions of business. Owing to the stringent times, low prices, 
two years of rather unfavorable weather, but little of that spirit of 
cheerfulness, activity and confidence in the future, so necessary to 
progress and success, were manifested. The weather seemed to be 
in harmony, too, with the other discouraging features of the times. 
It was dismal, the atmosphere was hazy, the smoke of prairie fires 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. Ill 

hung over the land for weeks, and the sun appeared red and dim. 
These weather conditions, though really nothing very unusual, had 
their depressing effect on the spirits of the people. 

The prices of various products, reported as current in the fall, 
were the following: — Flour .?4.50 and corn meal |2.00 per hundred; 
wheat 30 to 40 cents, oats 12^ cents, dull, potatoes 124- cents per 
bushel; butter 14 cents and tobacco 60 cents per pound; billiards 10 
cents per string. 

AN OUTLOOK. 

The great mass of the people of every locality are much influ- 
enced by events and circumstances external to the locality in which 
they live. The heart of every intelligent man beats much in sym- 
pathy with the great events occurring in the world, outside of his 
own locality, and he is much influenced in his life and conduct there- 
by, and for these reasons no true history,' of even small localities, 
can be written unless at least some brief reference is made to the 
great current outside events which are the subject of interest, 
thought and discussion, at the time, in the homes, in the work shop 
and places of public resort, among the people of whom the history 
is written. Hence it is that from time to time in the course of this 
work, attention is called to the great, leading and memorable events 
of the State and the Nation. 

Among the events occurring in the State, during the year, 
which attracted public attention, was the "Wright County war." A 
man named Wallace had been murdered in that county in 1858. One 
Jackson was tried for the offense in the spring of 1859, and acquitted. 
In April, a crowd of men hung Jackson. The governor offered a re- 
ward for the conviction of any of the lynchers. Soon after, one 
Moore was arrested as one of the parties, and taken to Wright county 
for trial, but was rescued by a mob. The military was ordered out, 
and eleven of the lynchers and rescuers were arrested and turned 
over to the civil authorities. "Glencoe" and "Owatonna" money 
made its appearance this year. It was considered among that class 
of "circulating medium," known by the euphoneous name of "shin- 
plasters." 

The arrest, trial and conviction'of Mrs. Bilanski, for the murder 
of her husband near St. Paul, created much interest throughout 
the State. She was executed in March of the next year. 

On the wider, national field, we discover a few notable events, 
of that year, worthy of mention. On the 14th of February, Oregon 
was admitted into the Union as the thirty- third State. 

The discovery of petroleum, during the summer, in Pennsyl- 
vania, created a great excitement. People from all parts of the 
Union flocked to the oil regions. Fabulous prices were paid for 
land, where it was supposed that oil existed. Sudden and great 
fortunes were made by many. The discovery of this oil, changed. 



112 HISTORY OF 

throughout the whole countrj', the modes and materials of illumina- 
tion, and the quantity of the oil obtained, has continued sufficient 
for the supply of the whole country for this and many other pur- 
poses. This discovery has created a new and profitable industry, 
employing thousands of men and many millions of dollars capi- 
tal. In September of this year occurred the fatal duel, near San 
Francisco, between Hon. D. C. Broderick, United States senator 
from California, and Hon. D. S. Terry, chief justice of that state. 
Broderick was killed. The duel grew out of iiolitical animosities. 
The event shocked the better sense of the whole United States. The 
duel is a most barbarous and criminal method of settling quarrels, 
but many of our public men, during the first three-quarters of a 
century of the republic, engaged in them. Public opinion at the 
time sustained the practice. Said Henry Clay, that eminent patriot, 
statesman, jurist and orator, himself several times engaged in duels, 
"When public opinion is renovated and chastened by reason, religion 
and humanity, the practice of dueling will at once be discontinued." 
That day has come. Public opinion, for some years past, has been 
against the practice, and he who has killed his antagonist in a duel, 
is considered but little better than a murderer. Happily duels sel- 
dom now occur. 

It was in October of this year that John Brown made his raid 
on Harper's Ferry, Va. He seized the U. S. Arsenal at that place 
and captured the town. His object was to liberate the'slaves of the 
■south and destroy the system of American slavery. The capture of 
this place was the initial and strategic point in his scheme. He had 
but a few followers, probably not to exceed twenty-five active parti- 
cipants, in this overt act, but he had many .sympathizers in the north, 
and probably among the negro population of the south. His pro- 
ject utterly failed. Government troops soon dislodged him and he 
was taken prisoner, and with a number of his abettors tried, con- 
victed and executed. 

But there was far more in this event than appears in the sim))le 
statement of the occurrence. It tended to estrange still farther, the 
south from the north, and augmented the bitterness growing between 
the two sections, on the question of slavery, and for many years 
afterwards there was heard throughout the north the famous song 
in which occurs the lines: 

"John Brown's body lies mouklering in the grave, 
But his soul goes marching on." 

And here endeth ihe record of the fifth year. 

"Gonel Gone forever! Like the rushing wave, 
Another year— has burst upon the shore 
Of earthly being— and its last low tones. 
Wandering in broken accents on the air, 
Are dying to an echo. ' 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 113 



CHAPTER VI. 

A. D. 1860. 

We now enter upon the history of the sixth year of the county. 
It was an important year, for among other things it was a year of 
reckoning — one in which the accounts were made up and the pro- 
gress which tlie county had made, was exhibited. Five of the most 
wretched years in the history of the county had been passed, 1855 
was the first of the settlement, during which but little had been 
done. In 1856 the population was sparce, and the couaty still a 
wilderness. In 1857 the Indian excitement and late spring were 
greatly detrimental. In 1858 the county was deluged by excessive 
rains and the crops were light. In 1859 the spring was again late, 
provisions scarce and high and the times hard. It was the period 
of first settlement and of the struggle to get a foothold and a sub- 
sistence — the stone age of the county. They were the years of 
semi- barbarism, of salt pork, corn bread and poor whisky, of rags 
and recklessness. 

But with the incoming of 1860, a better day in many respects 
notwithstanding the hard times, a new day with new duties dawned 
upon the county — a new decade and a new epoch in our history 
began. 

In distinguishing between the earlier and later years of the 
county, the years before 1860 may appropriately be named, the 
"early years" or "early days" of the county, and those who resided 
here then "the old settlers" or the early settlers of the county. 

THE LEGISLATURE. 

The second State legislature assembled at the capital December 
7th, 1859, and adjourned Mai-ch 12th, 1860. The county was repre- 
sented in this session by Geo. Watson in the Senate and Guy K. 
Cleveland, Allen Shultis and T. W. Purdie in the House. No acts 
were passed relating exclusively to this county, but the State was 
re apportioned for legislative purposes, and this county was placed 
in a new district, numbered the twentieth. The district was com- 
posed of the counties of Faribault, Martin, Jackson. Cottonwood, 
Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Rock and all that part of Bi'own County 
lying east of range thirty-four— a tract of territory large enough 
for an empire. This county had the distinction of being considered 



114 HISTOftY OF 

the senior county of tlie district. The district was entitled to one 
senator and one representative. 

At this session, Morion S. Wilkinson was chosen United States 
Senator to succeed James Shields. 

THE SUPERVISORS. 

This board met on the second day of January and had a session 
of four days. Much business was done, which is stated elsewhere 
in this history, but we note here that at the close of the session a 
very suspicious resolution was adopted, on motion of Supervisor 
Seely. The resolution was to the effect that Dr. W. N. Towndrow 
be appointed a committee "to inquire how much strychnine can be 
procured for one hundred dollars of county orders, and to report 
at the next meeting of the board." The resolution has a dark and 
mysterious aspect, as it does not state whether liquid "strychnine," 
as whisky was sometimes called, or the crystal, was intended, nor 
is there any intimation in the resolution, or on the record, as to 
the purpose for which the board was going into the wholesale 
poisoning business. But to save the board from unjust suspicion, 
the writer suggests the fact that in the earlier years of the county, 
among other calamities endui-ed by the settlers, was the great 
destruction of the crops by gophers, blackbirds and cranes, and 
which sometimes became so serious that the public authorities took 
the matter in hand, and purchased large quantities of poison, which 
was distributed among the farmers, with which to destroy the 
pests. 

The board met again on the 5th day of March, and after a 
session of several days adjourned, sine die. This was the last meet- 
ing of the board of supervisors. A note on the record reads as 
follows: "During the session of the legislatui-e of 1859-60, a general 
law was passed providing for a board of county commissioners, to 
consist of five members in counties of over eight hundred voters, 
and of three members in counties containing a less number, and 
repealing the act providing for a board of supervisors. Under this 
act this county is entitled to three commissioners, and in pursuance 
of the provisions of said act, such commissioners were elected at 
large at the annual town meetings in April, of this year, to hold 
their offices until the next general election." The persons elected 
were Albin Johnson, Thomas Blair and J. H. Welch. 

The supervisor system was wisely abolished. It may serve a 
good purpose in wealthy and populous counties, but the system is 
too cumbersome and expensive in counties thinly settled. Ordi- 
narily three or five men, as under the commissioner system, can 
transact the business of a county as wisely and expeditiously and 
much more economically, than a board composed of from ten to 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 115 

twenty members. The only action taken at this last meeting of the 
supervisors, needing special mention, was that of granting two li- 
censes to saloonkeepers to sell intoxicating liquors, which were the 
first ever granted in the county. In such cases a certificate signed 
by the county auditor is usually made, certifying the fact that the 
person named is authorized to sell intoxicating liquors at retail, and 
is delivered to such person. 

It is often the fact that certificates and diplomas granted for 
various purposes, are appropriately embellished with legends, mot- 
toes, apt quotations from the poets, or the scriptures, and the custom 
is a proper one. It might be asked what suitable texts may be used 
to adorn and beautify a license certificate to sell intoxicating liquors. 
The following are suggested, which may be neatly printed around 
the borders — "Wine is a mocker: Strong drink is raging, and whoso- 
ever is deceived thereby is not wise." Prov. 20:1. "At the last it 
biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." Prov. 23: 32. "No 
drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Cor. 6: 10. 

"Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may 
follow strong drink." Isa. 5: 11. 

And this might be printed in illuminated letters across the face 
of the certificate: 

"Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink; that puttest thy 
bottle to him and makest him drunken." Heb. 2: 15. 

THE SPRING. 

The year was one long to be remembered by the old settlers for 
many things, but especially for its delightful weather. The pre- 
ceding years had been, as we have seen, very disagreeable, but 
seemingly to compensate for this, the spring of this year opened 
early and at once. The snows of the winter and the rains of the 
spring were light, and passed off without floods. The greater part 
of the grain was sown during the last days of February and first 
half of March, and the weather continued very fine, from the open- 
ing of spring until very late in the fall. The water, mud and mos- 
quitoes of the preceding years were forgotten, and it was declared 
that Minnesota possessed the finest climate in the world. Never 
was a spring time more enjoyed by the people. The season of 
spring is always welcome. The bright sun worshipped as a god in 
the olden day, again comes back from his low southern position, 
bringing his glorious light and warmth. 

I marvel not, O Sun, that unta thee 

In adoration men shoukl bow the knee, 
And pour the prayer of mingled awe and love 

For Hke a God thou art, and on thy way, 
Of glory sheddest, with benignant ray, 

Beauty and life, and joyance from above.— iSoirf/ici/. 



116 nrsroitv or 

The icy fetters of old winter are broken. New born life and 
energy and activity are awakened on every hand. The doors and 
windows of our dwellings are thrown wide open, and the dwellers 
come forth with gladness as from a prison, to enjoy the bright day 
and balmy air and out door f j-eedom. 

"Zi'phyrs greet us, skies grow brighter, 
Flaiihing 'neath the noontide ray: 
Fair eyes .sparkle, heads grow lighter, 

.Smiles with gladden iuipul.se play; 
Spring brings with her leaf and flower, 
Heart's fresh gladnes.s, mind's fresh power." 

The streams again glitter and ripple and dance in the sun- 
light. The fields grow green, the wild flowers blossom and the 
trees and forests, long dead and withered, clothe themselves in 
verdure. The hu.sbandman goes forth to his fields to sow the seed, 
confident in the perpetual promise of the harvest, the cattle seek 
the fresh, new pastures, and the birds return to gladden the heart 
with their songs. What a grand resurrection from death unto life! 
Symbol indeed, of that more glorious resurrection of the just to life 
everlasting. 

These, as they change, Almighty Father, these 
Are but the varied God. The rolling year 
Is full of Thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring 
Thy beauty walks, Thy tenderness and love. , 
Wide flush the ttelds: the softening air is balm: 
Echo the mountains round: the forest smiles; 
And every sense, and every heart is joy. — Tkompson. 

THE COURT. 

In passing it may be well to state that the second term of the 
District Court commenced its session on the second day of April, Hon . 
L. Branson, presiding. A pretty lengthy calendar was disposed of, 
but none of the cases tried were of public importance. In the sum- 
mary of the events of a year, the sessions of our District Court, 
may, to a superficial observer, appear to be an unimportant item. 
But such is not the fact. Besides the important consideration that 
this court — the highest in the county — affords the means of the final 
adjustment of innumerable legal difficulties and the trial of offend- 
ers against the laws of the land, for which purposes it was estab- 
lished, it exercises a wholesome educational and restraining influ- 
ence upon the public. It is, too. the occasion of the assembling of 
many people from all parts of the county, either as parties having 
some interest in the causes to be tried, or as jurors or spectators. 
All become more or less instructed in the laws of the land and im- 
pressed with the jiower of the laws and the dignity and decorum of 
the courts of justice. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 117 

THE COMMISSIONERS (REDIVIVUS.) 

No event of interest occurred until the 4th day of June, when 
the new board of county commissioners met and oi-ganized by the 
election of Thomas Blair, chairman. The board proceeded to 
divide the county into three commissioner districts as follows: 

District No. One. —Comprised the towns of Kiester, Seely, 
Campbell, Dobson, Pilot Grove, Jo Daviess, Blue Earth City, and 
Emerald. 

No. Two. — Comprised the towns of Brush Creek, Foster, Cobb, 
Walnut Lake, Barber, Prescott, and Verona. 

No. Three. — Comprised the towns of Dunbar, Marples, Lura, 
Guthrie and Winnebago City. This division of the county was a 
matter of much interest at the time because of the rivalry then ex- 
isting between the north half and the south half of the county, led 
respectively by Winnebago City and Blue Earth City, the only 
villages in the county. As the commissioners were thereafter to 
be elected in the districts separately, and not at large, it was thought 
that this division would give one or the other faction a controlling 
interest on the board and in the county affairs. Winnebago City 
prevailed. The board met again on the 16th day of June and on 
the 4th day of September and November 17th, but did no business 
of historical interest, except such as is noted in other parts of this 
work. 

THE FIRST NATIONAL CENSUS. 

During the month of June a national census, the first of this 
county, was taken. Geo. B. Kingsley acted as assistant marshal, for 
taking the census of this county. The following abstracts of the re- 
turns are of interest: 

Number of male inhabitants 743 

Number of female inhabitants 589 

Whole number of inhabitants 1 ,332 

As compai'ed with the census of 1857, the increase of population 
was about one hundred per centum in three years. As to the nativ- 
ity of the population, one was born in Switzerland, one in Spain, 
one in District of Columbia, one in Holland, two in N. Carolina, two 
in Maryland, three in New Jersey, three in Nova Scotia, three in 
Missouri, three in Virginia, four in Hungary, four in Rhode Island, 
nine in France, ten in Kentucky, ten in Tennessee, twelve in Michi- 
gan, eighteen in Ireland, twenty in Connecticut, twenty- three in 
Scotland, twenty-five in New Hampshire, twenty-nine in England, 
thirty in Massachusetts, thirty-four in Prussia, thirty- five in Maine, 
thirty-seven in Norway, thirty-nine in the German States, foi-ty-two 
in Vermont, forty-eight in Iowa, forty-eight in Canada, fifty seven 
in Ohio, sixty-nine in Indiana, seventy-two in Illinois, seventy-five 



118 nisronv of 

in Pennsylvania, one hundred and eighteen in Wisconsin, one hun- 
dred and fifty-eight in Minnesota, and two hundred and eighty-seven 
in New York. From which it appears that 1,095 of the inhabitants 
of the count}' were born in the United States, of whom one hundred 
and fifty-eight only were native Minnesotians, the remainder, two 
hundred and forty-seven, were born in foreign countries. No citizen 
of African descent is reported. Turning to the report of certain 
property, it is found that the numbor of acres of improved laud was 
3,651. 

Cash valuo of farms $113,400 

Number of horses 159 

Milch cows 285 

Working oxen 198 

Other cattle 317 

Sheep 46 

Swine 579 

As to the occupations of the people of the county, the returns 
show that thei'e was one stage driver, one silversmith, one clerk, one 
millwright, one baker, one cooper, one gunsmith, one trapper, one 
butcher, two machinists, two tailors, two merchants, two hotel keep- 
ers, three shoemakers, three wagonmakers, six blacksmiths, seven 
school teachers, nineteen carpenters, two hundred and sixty farmers, 
besides farm laborers, two i^hysicians to look after the health of the 
people, five lawyers to see that justice was done and topreserve the 
peace and secure the temporal prosperity of the community, and one 
minister of the gospel to guard their spiritual interests. The dis- 
proportion which appears above, between the law and the gospel, 
was not so great as it seems, as there was but one law^'er at that 
time who pretended to practice. 

A census is defined to be "an official enumeration of persons 
and their property, generally with such facts as tend to show their 
moral, social, physical and industrial condition." The knowledge 
of the number of inhabitants, their condition in all respects and the 
resources of the country is very necessary to every government. 
The enumeration of the people was enjoined in the Pentateuch, and 
the most ancient record of the kind is that of Moses. There is a record 
of a Chinese census made in the year 2042 B. C.and of one in .Japan 
in the last century before Christ. The Greeks and Romans made such 
enumerations of the inhabitants, and in almost all civilized or semi- 
civilized countries it has been the custom for many centuries, at 
longer or shorter periods, to take a census. The Federal Constitu- 
tion requires the taking of a census every ten years. The first was 
made in 1790, and one has been made in every tenth year since. 
The number of any year ending with a cipher, is the year of the 
National census. The State also provides for a census everj' ten 
years, but the State census is usually taken in the year, the number 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 119 

of which ends with five. Thus we have a census of the State, either 
National or State, every five years. The National census of 1880, 
the tenth, was the most perfect, elaborate and reliable one ever made 
in any age or country. 

THE NATIONAL HOLIDAY. 

There was a Fourth of July celebration at Blue Earth City in 
due and ancient form. J. B. Wakefield, Esq. delivered the address. 
A large company was present and listened attentively as the orator 
eloquently told the old, old story, repeated every year from Wash- 
ington Territory to Florida, from Maine to California, of the great- 
ness and glory and eternal perpetuity of our country and its insti- 
tutions. Ah, how little we know of the future 1 This very anni- 
versary of the Fourth of July was the last one, for many years, 
celebrated in an undismembered country. The speaker of the fol- 
lowing year had a different story to tell — one of treason, disunion 
and blood, appalling to the patriotic heart! 

THE TIMES. 

The times still continued hard, and money, as the phrase goes, 
was very "close," but, as someone remarked, was not so close that 
the joeople could get hold of much of it. 

Yet a very marked and agreeable change had come over the 
community — a more hopeful and healthful spirit, a new life, new 
energy and enterprise seemed to animate the people. Immigration 
was very considerable, some building was being done in the villages 
and through the country — quite a large amount of land was broken 
up and farms opened, schools were started in various districts, 
roads were laid out and worked and bridges built, regular religious 
services were instituted at a number of places, society was getting 
in better condition and the county into good running oi'der, and to 
crown all, the crops were abundant and harvested in good season. 

NOTABLE EVENTS. 

Among the great events of the year, which attracted public at- 
tention and were the subjects of discussion, there may be mentioned 
that terrible calamity, the falling of the great Pemberton Mills, at 
Lawrence, Mass., in wbichhundredsof operatives were crushed and 
burned to death. 

Then there was the arrival in May, at Washington, of the Grand 
embassy from Japan, bearing a treaty of peace and commerce with 
the United States. This was the first treaty ever made by this curi- 
ous and ancient people, with any outside, "barbarous" nation. The 
Embassy, and the reception accorded it by the general government, 
were very imposing and worthy, too, such great nations. 



120 HISTORY OF 

The checkered career of Gen. Walker, the great filibuster, 
whose "expeditions" during a number of years, created considerable 
interest, came to an end in Sei)tomber of this year. He was shot 
in Honduras, a country which he designed to "take," but which, it 
appears took him. The visit of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, 
and his tour through the United States during the summer and fall, 
was also one of the memorable events of the year. 

I. o. G. T. 

As an evidence of the progress of the times it is well to record 
the fact that on the 8th day of September, of this year, there was 
organized at Blue Earth City a lodge of the Independent Order of 
Good Templars, consisting of sixteen charter members. This was 
the first temperance organization ever instituted in the county, and 
the necessity for it, at that time, has never been questioned from 
that day to this* It being the first society of the kind, the writer 
will he excused for mentioning the chief officers of the lodge. They 
were as follows : 

J. A. Kiester, Worthy Chief Templar. 

Mrs. C. M. Butler, Worthy Vice-Templar. 

Geo. B. Kingsley, Worthy Secretary. 

Wesley Hill, Assistant Secretary. 

E. C. Young, Financial Secretary. 

Mrs. J. A. Converse, Treasurer. '• 

J. A. Monahan, Marshal. 

Geo. S. Converse, Chaplain. 
This lodge prospered greatly and many were reclaimed from hab- 
its of intemperance, but after about a year of good works, owing to 
various causes, it ceased to exist. The order has often however, been 
re-established and done good work in various parts of the county, 
since that day. Frontier towns are often rough and immoral places 
and the villages in our county, in the earlier days, were no excep- 
tion, though they were not so bad as many other places. In western 
border towns, saloons are too often the chief places of resort, and 
drunkenness, with its inevitable concomitants, gambling, profanity 
and rowdyism pretty generally prevails, to the great injury of the 
locality. To even a casual observer it is very plain that were 
the intoxicating liquors removed from such places the greater 
proportion of these evils would disappear. They constitute, in 
great measure, the fuel which feeds these fires of hell. A town or 
city should not only be an aggregation of people and houses, and a 
center of trade and manufactures, but it should also be a center of 
intelligence and culture, with its schools and libraries, lecture halls 
and high-toned press, a center of religion, morality and good man 
ners and good order, with its churches and moral and benevolent 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 121 

societies and pure social and domestic life, and should exert a 
benign and elevating influence on all the surrounding and tributary 
country. It should not be a sinlf of iniquity where drunlienness, 
vulgarity, gambling, jDrofanity and other vices and crimes, with 
ignorance, filth and social degradation, are the predominent fea- 
tures, a place where easy facilities and temptations are found, on 
every hand, to allure the unwary to wrong doing, a quagmire, a 
hole in which not only many of its own people are sunk, but one 
exercising a baleful influence on all the surrounding country, a 
place which, when anyone visits on business or pleasure, an anxious 
family, or friends at home, fear for him because he may return 
demoralized, despoiled and drunken. That our villages, larger 
towns and cities, shall ever be such places as they should be, is 
doubtless but a Utopian dream, but all experience and observation 
prove, that the longest step which can be taken toward such an 
accomplishment, would be the extermination of the use of and traffic 
in intoxicating liquors, and blessed be the hand, the head, and the 
heart, that helps so good a cause. 

A powerful religious organization has incorporated in its 
fundamental law, the following declaration: 

"Temperance in its broader meaning is distinctly a Christian virtue, enjoined 
in the Holy Scriptures. It implies a suDordination of all tlie emotions, passions 
and appetites to the control of reason and conscience. Dietetically it means 
a wise use of suitable articles of food and drink, with entire abstainance from 
such as are i?nown to be hurtful. Both science and human experience argee 
withtheholy Scriptures, in condemning all alcoholic beverages as being neither 
useful nor safe. The business of manufacturing and vending such liquors is 
also against the principles of morality, political economy and the public 
welfare." 

FIGURING UP. 

Let us now see what we had this year in the way of crops and 
the value of property. The following statement was compiled by 
the county auditor from the asse'ssors returns: 

Wheat, acres 1,524 Bushels 27,087 

Eye, " 8 " 166 

Barley " 35 " 775 

Oats, " 536 " 20,104 

Buck\rtieat," 53 " 557 

Corn, " 1,141 " 41,293 

Potatoes. " 133 " 20,766 

Beans, " 12 " 202 

Sorghum, " 9 600 gallons 

Hay, (wild) 1,711 tons 

Assessed value of property in the county : 

Real $232,530.00 

Personal 30,565.00 

Total 263,095.00 



122 HISTOUY OF 

Prices average as follows during the year: In the spring flour 
was *3. 50 per hundred, butter 12A cents per pound, corn 50 cents 
and wheat ^\.00 per bushel. In the fall Uour $3.50 to §4.00 per 
hundred, pork 9 to 12 cents per pound, butter 12A cents per pound, 
corn 50 cents and oats 16 cents per bushel. 

THE SECOND FAIR. 
The fair of the Agricultural Society was held again at Winne- 
bago City and proved a gratifying success. The farmers manifested 
a disposition to make these annual exhibitions pleasant and profita- 
able. The interest in the society was now well established and 
growing, and the society bid fair to serve a good purpose. 

THE HATTLE OF THE BALLOT.S. 

As the fall came on, politics began to interest the people. It 
was the year of a great presidential election and was the first presi- 
dential election at which the people of this county were permitted 
to vote on this question. Great interest too was manifested in our 
local politics. Several State and quite a number of county and dis- 
trict officers were to be elected. The presidential candidates were 
Abraham Lincoln, Republican: Stephen A. Douglas, Northern De- 
mocrat; .John C. Breckenridge, Southern Democrat, and John Bell, 
Old Whig and Peace party. 

The Republican District Convention met at Madeli^, and nomi- 
nated for Senator Guy K. Cleveland, of this county, and A. Strecker, 
of another county, for Representative. 

The Republican County Convention met at Blue Earth and 
nominated. 

For Register of Deeds, J. A. Kiester. 

County Auditor, A. Bonwell. 

Surveyor, J. H. Welch. 

Judge of Probate, A. Preston. • 

County Attorney, J. B. Wakefield. 

County Commissioners, J. H. Dunham, J. B. Wakefield and 
Thomas Blair. No nominations were made for the offices of Clerk of 
Court and Court Commissioner. The Democratic candidates wei'e: 

For Senator, Andrew C. Dunn. 

Representative, Wm. B. Carroll. 

For Register of Deeds, L. W. Brown. 

County Auditor, Geo. K. Moultou. 

Surveyor, J. M. Wheeler. 

Judge of Probate, D. H. Morse. 

Clerk of Court, Geo. B. Kingsley. 

Court Commissioner, Andrew C. Dunn. 

No nomination was made by the Democrats for the office of 
County Attorney. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 123 

The election was held on the 6th day of November, and the fol- 
lowing was the result: 

Lincoln electors, 270 votes. Douglas electors, 63 votes. 
For Senator, Guy K. Cleveland had 221 votes and Andrew C. 
Dunn 105. For Representative, A. Streeker had 246 votes and W. 
B. Carroll 87. For County Auditor, A. Bonwell had 270 votes and 
Geo. K. Moulton 64. For County Attorney, J. B. Wakefield (no op- 
position), had 328 votes. For Surveyor, J. H. Welch had 264 votes 
and J. M. Wheeler 69. For Judge of Probate, A. Preston had 268 
votes and D. H. Morse 65. For Register of Deeds, J. A. Kiester 
had 262 votes and L. W. Brown 74. For Clerk of Court, Geo. B. 
Kingsley (no opposition), had 126 votes. For Court Commissioner, 
Andrew C. Dunn had 91 votes and J. A. Kiester 102. For County 
Commissioners, J. H. Dunham, J. B. Wakefield and Thos. Blair were 
elected. The whole vote of the county was 336. 

The presidential contest of 1860 was a bitter and exciting one, 
and on its issues depended, in a great measure, very stupendous re- 
sults. The antagonism between the free States of the North and 
the slave States of the South, had been growing stronger and 
stronger, from year to year. The cry of "disunion, secession" had 
long been heard, but grew loud and portentious in this campaign. 
It meant something. The Shibboleths of the campaign in the North 
were, free homers, free labor, free speech, free press and squatter 
sovereignty. The Republican party was in the minority, as against 
all outside of its ranks, but owing to the divisions among the oppo- 
sition, Mr. Lincoln was elected president. When this fact became 
known, intense excitement prevailed throughout the South. Seces 
sion conventions were called in various southern States, southern 
members of the cabinet and a number of senators and representa- 
tives in congress, from southern States, resigned their seats, and 
several forts, custom houses and other property of the general gov- 
ernment, in the South, were seized under State authority. 

The year closed here, as throughout the whole nation, in gloom. 
Business became again depressed, another "money panic" prevailed, 
and currency became greatly depreciated, enterprise was paralyzed, 
and the people, full of forebodings, were watching and waiting. It 
was indeed evident that the di'eaded hour, long threatened, had come, 
and a dreadful time — the awful import of which none then fully 
realized — aye, even the day of the battle of the bullets — was indeed 
near at hand. 

"O, shame to men ! devil with devil damned 

Firm concord holds, men only disagree 

Of creatures national, ****** 

And live in hatred, enmity and strife 

Among themselves, and levy cruel vears, 

"Wasting the earth, each other to destroy." — Milton. 



124 HISTORY OF 

If the reader will now recall to mind, the principal events of 
this year, the weather conditions, the scarcity of money, our sta- 
tistics of population, of live stock and farm products, the topics of 
local and public interest, discussed among the people, and will at 
the same time remember that there were then no railroads or tele- 
graphs and no newspapers in the county, that we had but two small 
villages then, that the settlements were confined to the timber, along 
the streams and about the lakes, and that the prairie lands were 
almost all unclaimed and vacant, he will have a very accurate mental 
picture of our county in 1860. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 125 



CHAPTER VII. 

A. D. 1861. 

THE GREAT REBELLION. 

"Dissolve the Union! No, forbear, 
The Sword of Democles is there; 
Cut but a hair and earth shall know 
A darker, deadlier tale of woe 
Than history's crimson page has told, 
Since Nero's car in blood was rolled." 

This year saw the beginning, but alas, notwithstanding all the 
hopes and pi'omises at the time, not the end, of the great rebellion. 
The dark clouds of civil war — a war more gigantic and terrible than 
any yet known among men, were fast gathering, when the year 
opened, and cast their somber and ominous shadows over the 
whole land. 

The mutterings of the gathering storm, now grown loud and 
fierce, were heard by the people of this county, as by all other loyal 
citizens of the land, with grief and indignation. But they, like the 
great majority of the people of the United States, both North and 
South, but little apprehended the tremendous carnival of blood and 
desolation, u^Don which the Nation was about to enter. 

Though this county lay far out, at the time, on the frontiers and 
away from the great centers of activity, wealth and influence, the 
patriotic spirit of the peoiDle,was soon awakened. Recruiting for the 
army began very early, and every encouragement was given by the 
county and its people to the cause of the Union, from the very be- 
ginning until the close of the war, and we are proud to record 
the fact here, that the patriotism, courage and fortitude of no peo- 
ple ever surpassed that of the residents of this county, during the 
troublous times of the great rebellion and the terrible Sioux massa- 
cre, all of which will become evident as we px'oceed with this his- 
tory. Of the causes which led to the great civil war and the events 
which characterized it, belonging more properly to the domain of 
national history, but little need be said in this work. 

It is sufticient to say here, briefly, in explanation, that from Co- 
lonial times, there had been gradually growing up in the Nation, 
between the North and the South, an apparent antagonism of inter- 
ests, political sentiments and social structure, which originated in 



126 HISTOltY OF 

and was fostered by the institution of slavery in the Southern States 
of the Union. Human slavery was an anomaly in a free government 
like ours. The system was not only a violation of the ))recepts of 
natural and revealed law. but was directly at variance with all the 
fundamental principles of our political institutions. The system of 
free government and equality of political privileges for all, and re- 
spected free labor in the North, could not peaceably exist by the side 
of the system of slavery, with its aristocracy of masters and de- 
graded slave labor and other inherent evils. 

Hence constant contention on the subject of slavery, its rights 
to protection and its right, under the constitution, to go into the 
free territories sprang up and constantly grew more and more 
bitter. The statesmen of the South soon conceived the idea that 
the union of the States was of little binding force or obligation, and 
they early taught the doctrine of absolute "State sovereignty" and 
the right of any State to secede from the Union when it chose. 
This pernicious doctrine of State rights was, in debate, overthrown 
by the statesmen of the North. Yet while the South was mainly 
united in its views and demands, the North was somewhat divided. 
In all the preliminary stages of the contest and during the rebel- 
lioQ the South had many sympathizers in the North. Numerous 
compromises on the subject were made but all was of no avail. 
Slavery was a sin against God, a crime against man and embodied 
within itself a host of intolerable evils, the result of the relation ex- 
isting between the absolute master and the absolute slave. It was 
repugnant to the progress and enlightenment and sense of justice 
and right of the age. It was well-named a "relic of barbarism" and 
was overliving its time in the world's history. Therefore com- 
promises, admitting its existence, settled nothing. No question is 
ever settled until it is settled right, and the only right settlement 
of the slavery question was its total abolition. All great evils, per- 
haps all evils are aggressive. Slavery was aggressive. It con- 
stantly demanded more and more. Southern leaders sought to make 
slavery national, while in fact it was never anything but a sectional 
institution. They became very arrogant, insolent and domineering 
everywhere, but especiallv in the national councils. The North 
could not agree to the extension of the evil, nor accede to the many 
other demands of the South. Southern statesmen determined to 
maintain their peculiar institution and its right to extension, its 
nationalization, and to dominate the politics and control the highest 
offices of the nation. If they could not do this in the Union, then 
they would dissolve the Union. They finally by falsohood.s, specious 
arguments, the spread of a false public sentiment and a great 
clamor, led the whole people of the South to believe that it was 
right and necessary for the slave States to secede. And this they 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 127 

attempted. They organized a new government in February for the 
seceded States, and named it "The Confederate States of America," 
and they proposed to maintain themselves by force of arms, and 
proceeded to organize their armies, and early in the year they seized 
the forts, arsenals and navy yards situated in their States. 

Such action was a violation of the constitution and laws of 
the nation, and the whole theory of the action was erroneous. 

Another cause which led to and precipitated such action, was 
the lust for power of evil, ambitious and reckless, men, who led 
in the movement. They thought to obtain wealth, power and posi- 
tion by this act of dissolving the old Union and the establishment 
of a new government of which they should have control — a govern- 
ment built upon the basis of the slavery of a large part of its people. 
The attempt was rebellion against the supremacy and lawful author- 
ity of the nation, and the act was treason. 

That the reader of the future, may, without consulting the more 
extensive authorities, have some idea of the views of the people of 
the Northern States, on the subjects of secession and disunion, the 
writer has thought proper to note here, vei'y briefly indeed, some of 
the propositions maintained by them, on these, the most solemn 
and portentious questions which have ever agitated the American 
people. 

The secession of the States of the South from the Union, was 
impolitic, impracticable and grossly unjust, to say nothing of the 
higher and constitutional objections. We may briefly refer to some 
of these considerations. 

1. It sought to dissever a united, homogeneous, free and pros- 
perous people — a people who, though originally constituted of sev- 
eral different nationalities and assimilating the people of the many 
nationalities, subsequently flowing to it, had created a new nation- 
ality — the American — having a national language, one religion, a 
common literature, education and traditions, the same social and do- 
mestic characteristics, habits and customs, a common inheritance of 
political rights and substantially common interests, except as some 
of these conditions were modified by the existence of chattel slavery 
in the States of the South. And the people of this new nationality 
is destined, if earth and time shall endure but a little longer, to be- 
come the greatest race in intellectual, intuitive and physical 
power, which has yet appeared in the world. 

2. Disunion would divide great religious organizations, moral 
and charitable associations, scientific societies, greatly impair many 
splendid educational institutions, and break up many social and 
family relations, creating bitter antagonisms among them all. 

3. Disunion sought to divide territory which nature seems to 
have designed to be one. Great rivers, the outlets to the sea, the 



128 HISTORY OF 

highways of a vast commerce crossed many States, the free naviga- 
tion of which was an indisputable right and which should never be- 
come subject in whole, or in part, to control and tolls imposed by 
rival, perhaps hostile nations. And the natural and manufactured 
products of this great territory were necessary to the comfort and 
welfare of the whole, and to be free from any interstate duties and 
restrictions, such as would exist and would be necessary for local 
protection, if this territory should be divided into two or more sep- 
arate and independent nations. 

4. Disunion sought to sunder territory already long bound to- 
gether in commercial and pecuniary unity, by the iron bands of 
railroads, built through and interlaced over many States of the 
Union, thus disrupting and injuring them, without regard to the 
rights of the relative parts, or the public or private interests in- 
volved. 

5. Disunion would ignore and make no provision for the vast 
interstate moneyed interests and corporation rights (in addition to 
those of railroads), and would render worthless and subject to re- 
pudiation, State and other public bonded indebtedness, involving 
hundreds of millions of dollars, in value, and the property rights of 
hundreds of thousands of innocent people. 

Brielly stated, the right, so called, of secession was based upon 
the assumption that the union of the States was but a league or con- 
federation of sovereign and independent States, or natioas, and that 
any one of such States could dissolve the Union, that is, secede there- 
from at will. This doctrine had long been taught by a few of the 
statesmen of the South, but it is certainly a delusion. The impolicy 
of disunion is referred to above and now a word may be added as to 
the historical and legal, or constitutional phases of this so-called 
right. 

There never was a time from the earliest colonial times to the 
day of the Declaration of Independence, when any colony was a sov- 
ereign and independent State, or nation, but while, for a time, the 
colonies were independent of each other, they were all the subjects 
of one nation — Great Britain. 

And the colonies were united, when framing and promulgating 
the Declaration of Independence and long prior thereto, and were 
known by the name of the "United Colonies," then named States. 
And it was the rei)resentatives of the united not the separate. States 
of America, in general congress assembled. Congress representing 
the people, being the sovereign power which proclaimed, not by the 
authority of the sepai-ate States, but "in the name and by the au- 
thority of the people of the colonies," or States, the Declaration of 
Independence; independence not of each colony of the others, but 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 129 

the independence of the united colonies, now States, of the mother 
country — Great Britian. 

It was not the independence of the separate States which was ac- 
knowledged by Great Britian by the treaty of 1783, or that which 
was recognized by the other States of the world, but it was the inde- 
pendence of the nation, the United (not the separate or sovereign) 
States of America. 

The Constitution of the United States was proposed by the sep- 
arate States through their representatives in congress, but received 
its adoption, sanction and authority, by the whole people, for the 
purpose of forming "a more perfect union" "and legislating" "for 
the general welfare." "The people of the United States" did this 
sovereign act, in conventions of the people, not separate and inde- 
pendent States, by their legislatures, claiming sovereign powers. 
And the Union is one and indivisible, except by the whole people 
themselves. For back of all States or other political subdivisions, 
back even of the organization known as the United States, is the peo- 
ple, one entire people, the source under God, of all authority and. 
power, the real sovereignty of the nation, and the Union is indis- 
soluble, except by the consent of the whole people. 

The vast subsequent acquisition of territory, the Louisiana pur- 
chase, Florida, etc., purchased from other nations and from the 
Indians, were not acquired by any one State, then existing, or sub- 
sequently organized, but by the Nation — the United States — from 
the common funds of the Nation, and belongs to the whole people, 
the Nation, and such territories are used and occupied by the people 
therein for the purposes of the Nation, under the constitution, and 
cannot be diverted to the use of a separate sovereignty, without the 
consent of the whole people. And if any State or States, or terri- 
tories of the United States became vacant, every part thereof, and 
everything therein would be immediately subject to the control and 
disposal of the people of the United States. 

The forts, arsenals, navy yards, custom houses, mints, coast 
defences, national hospitals and all other national property in the 
States or territories are the property of the Nation, and the State or 
territory wherein such property is situated, can acquire no prop- 
erty rights therein without the consent of the Nation. States in the 
Union are separate and independent only so far as indicated in and 
by the constitution of tlie United States. They are sovereign, sepa- 
rate from and independent of each other and of the United States, 
in relation to their local, domestic or municipal affairs, but are not 
sovereign in a national capacity, and cannot, in these respects, or 
in any respects, pass any law, or do any act, in conflict with the 
National Constitution and the laws of the United States, made in 
pursuance thereof. States have their rights, which should be care- 



laO HI STORY OF 

fully maintained, under the constitution and federal laws, but among 
these rights the so called right of secession is not one, and no pro- 
vision has ever been anywhere made whereby a State may secede, or 
the Union be dissolved, for the Union was to be perpetual. 

The general government had done no wrong to the States of the 
South ; had not even interfered with their peculiar institution of 
slavery. Tliese facts were admitted by some of the southern lead- 
ers. As can easily be proved, the southern States had no excuse for 
their action, which an enlightened humanity or wise statesman- 
ship can ever approve. It was simply wild, willful and wicked. 

There is such a right as the right of revolution, but there is no 
such right as that of rebellion. Rebellion is resistance to the exer- 
cise of lawful authority (and success does not sanctify it) and rebel- 
lion, sustained by arms is treason, pure treason, and such was the 
action of the seceding States. 

Revolution is resistance to the exercise of unlawful, or usurped 
authority, authority exercised against protest and in defiance of con- 
stitutional and natural rights and legal limitations, and is a right 
inherent in all peoples, and such was the American revolution which 
secured the existence of this independent nation. And the real char- 
acter, the distinctions between rebellion and revolution should never 
be confounded. 

But we have not yet reached the highth of the argument 
against secession and disunion. Disunion was death to this the 
greatest, freest, happiest, most prosperous nation the world or time 
had ever seen. United we could stand against all the world, in all 
that will ever be of real value to man, as an individual, or of true 
gloi'y as a nation. Divided, we should be broken into two, but more 
probably, eventually into four, or six, different inimical nations, ly- 
ing contiguous, between which continual and innumerable jealousies 
and contentions would exist. 

For among these there would be one, or more, aristocracies 
built upon the slavery of the masses of the people, where labor 
would be degraded, where the public life, sentiments and action 
would be arrogant, and exist upon a low plain of civilization. Such 
unfavorable conditions existing all about us, would create harassing 
apprehensions necessitating strong military equipments maintained 
by oppressive taxation. There would be alliances and intrigues 
with foreign powers whose interests it would be to foster and im- 
bitter our contentions, until wars should result, constant changes 
occur, peace and prosperity desert us, and finally, perhaps, when 
broken and weakened by our misfortunes, our liberties would be 
swept away, and either anarchy or despotism would rule the land. 
Judging by the past of nations, through all history, such a destiny 
was to be apprehended. The establishment of the Confederacy, 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 131 

Tvould, indeed, endanger the peace and safety of the other States 
and nation, and this fact alone, was a sufficient warrant, by the laws 
of nations for the action of the general government, in putting down 
the rebellion. 

Wise indeed were the words of the immortal Washington, when 
in his farewell address he spoke of the value of the Union and the 
necessity for its preservation. 

He says: " It is the main pillar in the edifice of your real inde- 
pendence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace 
abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which 
you so highly prize, and you should discountenance whatever may 
suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be dissolved." 

But even this was not all. The question of disunion and its 
probable results, expanded into still vaster proportions. 

In the slow passage of the centuries in the world's history, men 
had struggled with but an uncertain hope, yet slowly moving upward 
and onward from political oppression and despotic rule, until out 
of the storms and blood and sufferings of the American revolution, 
arose the great republic, in which was embodied and illustrated the 
best forms of self government, citizen sovereignty, civil and relig- 
ious liberty and material national prosperity, the world had yet 
known. And it was soon conceived at home, and realized everywhere 
abroad, that, bound up with the success, or failure, of disunion, were 
the fate of free government and popular institutions, and that the 
results wei"e not a matter of awful interest to this country alone, or 
to this generation alone, but to all mankind and to all the genera- 
tions to come. 

To say nothing of the motives and objects of the southern lead- 
ers, the rebellion itself was the most enormous political crime of all 
the ages. 

And no grander, or holier cause — the maintenance of the 
Union, with all that it implied, ever sanctioned a resort to arms, or 
warranted men in laying down their lives in its defense, than this. 
In the emergency, there was nothing left but to maintain the Union, 
the constitution and the laws, and this and this only, was the pri- 
mary object of the government and loyal people. The abolition of 
slavery, was but an incident of the war, yet one of the grandest 
achievements of any age or country. 

Such being the situation and such the necessity, the general 
government and the loyal people of the North, believing in the jus- 
tice of their cause, and invoking the favor of Almighty God, entered 
with an enthusiasm never before witnessed among the nations of 
the earth, upon the gigantic task of crushing the rebellion. And 
they crushed it. 

Let us now turn to home affairs. 



132 BISTOItY OF 

THE commissioner's COURT. 

The County Commissioners assembled on New Year's day and 
elected J. H. Dunham, chairman, when after a few hour's work, 
they adjourned, in view of the fact, it is to be presumed, that it was 
a holiday. They had sessions again on the 20th day of February, 
March 20th, June 24th and September 3d. The action of the board, 
during the whole year, was singularly devoid of historic interest. 

THE LAW MAKERS. 

The third State Legislature assembled at the Capital, January 
8th, and held a session of sixty days. Only two acts were passed 
at this session of special interest to the people of this county. One 
of which was an act fixing the time of holding the term of the District 
Court, setting the same for "the first Wednesday after the first 
Tuesday of April in each year." The other and much more im- 
portant one, was an act relating to the county seat of this county, 
approved March first, which enacted "That the county seat of the 
county of Fairbault be and the same is hereby removed from the 
town of Blue Earth City, its present location, to the incorporated 
town of Winnebago City, in said county" and that "This act shall 
not take effect until the same has been adopted by the electors of 
said county." It is hardly necessary to say that this latter act 
created quite a commotion in the south half of the county, the 
results of which we shall see hereafter. Our members' of the legis- 
lature at this session, were Guy K. Clevelaad, in the Senate, and A. 
Strecker, in the House. 

THE LAND OFFICE. 

About the first of February great expectations existed that the 
United States Land Office, then located at Chatfield, Fillmore 
county, would soon be removed further west, and that Blue Earth 
City would be the lucky point of location. In fact all arrangements 
had been definitely made, and nothing remained to do, but to wait 
the event, now supposed to be near at hand. But alas! 

The best laid schemes o' mice and men 

GanK off a-gloy, 
An' lea'e us nousfht but grief and pain, 

For promis'd joy.— jB«r?is. 

The project failed to the great disappointment of the people of 
Blue Earth City. Yet the county secured the office. In October of 
this year, it was removed to Winnebago City, and was opened for 
business about the 4th day of November. For a number of years 
previous, it was currently understood that the office should soon 
have to be brought further west, and both of the villages in this 
county made great exertions to secure it, with finally the above re- 




ISAAC BOTSFORD. 
The First Editor. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 133 

suit. It was in those days a boon worth contending for. It was a 
gi'eat accession to the business of the town where located, as per- 
sons taking up lands over a very large territory, attended at the office, 
to enter or prove up their lands, who expended more or less money, 
during their stay. It stimulated enterprise and improvement at 
home, and gave the town where located, a name and prestige, which 
attracted immigration and capital from abroad. 

It was an auspicious event for Winnebago City and a great con- 
venience and advantage to the people of the whole county. One of 
the citizens of the county, Mr. J. H. Welch, of Verona, was ap- 
pointed register and Mr. H. W. HoUey, who thereafter became a 
permanent resident of the county, was appointed receiver. 

THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

The meeting of the Agricultural Society was held at Blue Earth 
City, April 3d. As an indication of the scarcity of money at the 
time, it may be stated that at this meeting a motion was made, that 
county orders be received and paid by the society, as money, but 
the motion was lost. At this time the officers of the society were J. 
A. Latimar, president; J. H. Welch, secretary and H. T. Stoddard, 
treasurer. The fair was appointed to be held at Blue Earth City on 
the 2d and 3d of October, but was adjourned to the 9th. It was a 
failure. Rain fell most of the day. There were but ninety-eight 
entries. 

THE COURT. 

The District Court held its regular annual session April 3d. 
Hon. Lewis Branson presiding. The term lasted but one day. There 
was no business for the grand jury, and but one case for the petit 
jury. This speaks well for the people. 

THE FIRST NEWSPAPER. 

One of the most important events which had yet occurred in the 
county, happened on the 6th day of April of this year. This was 
the appearance of the first newspaper published in the county. On 
that day the first number of the Blue Earth City Neivs was issued. 
It was a small, six column, four page sheet and bore the motto, 
"Devoted to the interests of the people of Faribault County." It was 
to be issued on Saturday of each week. The typographical and 
general appeax'ance of the paper was very good and gave general 
satisfaction. Isaac Botsford was the editor and proprietor as ap- 
pears from the first numbers of the paper, but Frank A. Blackmer 
was also interested in the paper and assisted in the publication. The 
■subscription price was one dollar and fifty cents per annum, jiaya- 
ble in advance. The editor states that he will receive in payment 
lor subscriptions anything that grows that he can use, or anything 
that is made except counterfeit money. The first number was well 



134 HISTORY OF 

filled with advertisements of merchants, hotels, professional cards 
and notices. The subscription list was not a very long one. To en- 
courage the project quite a number of the leading men of Blue Earth 
City took as many as fifteen copies each and paid for them. The 
editors salutatory was very lengthy and probably the most compre- 
hensive and exhaustive one ever written. It set forth in fair and 
frank language the editor's understanding of his duties and the diffi- 
culties of publishing a newspaper in the "back counties." The 
salutatory was entitled"Our Bow." We make the following extracts: 

"A time honored custom compels us in this, the initial number of the lilue 
Earth City News, to give the pablic an inkling of our principles and purposes. 
It is natural and right that a community should know something of the charac- 
ter of a paper just springing into life in their midst. Wlien money is scarce as 
it is at the present time, every prudent man will look twice at his money before 
parting with it, and more especially will he do so if he knows nothing of the 
character or quality of the article he is purchasing and, therefore, it is but just 
to ourselves and the public from whom we expect to receive our support, that 
we should state distinctly at the outset what we Intend to uphold and what we 
intend to condemn." 

"We shall have but very little to do with politics." 

"But we do not propose to publish a neutral paper by any means, neither on 
this subject, nor any other. We shall feel at liberty to speak, write and pub- 
lish jyst what we please on all subjects." 

"Our sympathies are with the republican party. » * • « Con- 
sequently none will be surprised to learn that we intend to publish a republican 
paper." , 

"We are, of course, opposed to slavery infotoand can never give our sanction 
to the further spread of the accursed evil." 

"Our great aim shall be to publish a good country paper." 

"An experience in newspaper publishing of two years has taught us the les- 
son that no man without the fortune of a Rothschild, can afford to publish a 
paper in any other manner than by requiring pay in advance." 

Mr. Botsford did not fail in his aim of publishing "a good 
county paper." The News was always a clean, truthful and relia- 
ble sheet. Many larger and more pretentious papers have been 
published since, but there has never been, to this day, a better local 
paper published in this county than the Bine Earth City News. A 
copy of the first volume of the Neios is in the hands of the writer, 
and is the only one known to be now in existence in this county. It 
•was kindly presented to the writer by John A. Dean, Esq., on condi- 
tion that it should be bound and preserved, which has been done. 

The spring of this year was rather late. Heavy rains and high 
waters prevailed. Spring plowing, of which there was more in 
those days, in proportion to the acreage than there is now, com- 
menced about the 13th of April, and most of the seeding was done 
after the LlOth of the month. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 135 

TRAPPING. 

During the early years of the county a considei'able trade was 
carried on ia furs and peltries, which proved a great benefit to the 
people, in view of the low price of farm products and the great dis- 
tance of markets. Furs always brought cash, at some price, and 
were always ready sale. In the News we find a statement that dur- 
ing the winter and spring of 1860-61, "one merchant had purchased 
5,000 muskrats, 300 minks, 100 foxes, 40 coons, 14 otters, 11 wolves, 
5 badgers and 4 beavers at a cost of about ^1,200. Other merchants 
also dealt in furs to a considerable extent, and there were many 
traveling buyers in the county. The News further says that "com- 
petent judges assure us that not less than sSS.SOO has been paid 
to citizens of this county during the past winter for this one 
commodity." 

For some years quite a number of our citizens would engage 
every fall and winter in the business of trapping for furs. Usually 
two persons would go into partnership and fit out with numerous 
traps, several guns, ammunition, a small sheet iron stove, a few tin 
dishes, blankets for bedding, flour or meal, salt pork, tobacco, pipes 
and some other useful articles, and having sought out some suitable 
place on the prairies, on the margin of a slough, or on the borders 
of a lake, sometimes on the banks of a stream, or in the timber, 
they would erect a small shanty, eight or ten feet square and about 
six feet high, as their dwelling; these hovels were sometimes built 
of boards, but more frequently they were "dug-outs," that is, holes 
dug into the sides of a bank, and covered over with poles, grass 
and sods. Here some months would be spent in the interesting 
business of trapping, varied occasionally by a visit to the settle- 
ments for supplies. It was rather a hard, greasy and somewhat 
odoriferous life, but it had its attractions; it possessed a dash of 
romance and adventure, and usually paid well. The earnings 
averaged all the way from one hundred dollars to six hundred dol- 
lars a season, and the business covered a part of the year when little 
else could be done. 

Many a slough with its village of muskrat houses, in the years 
past, yielded a more valuable crop and a good deal more amusement 
than some of the grain fields. 

HUNTING. 

In the first years of the county large game such as elk, deer, 
bears, wolves, foxes, coon and the smaller kinds also, were quite 
plenty. The buffalo had ceased to roam over these prairies, but a 
short time previous to the first settlement one of their herding 
or stamping grounds was yet, at the time of the first settlement, to 
be seen near the head waters of the west branch of the Blue Earth 



136 mSTOItV OF 

River. One of the first settlers of the county, soon after his arri- 
val here, discovered a buffalo following up his cattle when they 
came home one evening — a lone fellow that had strayed from his 
native herd. 

The deer, elk and bear disappeared soon after the first settle- 
ment, but occasionally for some years after, they would be seen. 
Wolves and foxes, however, continued quite numerous down to the 
time of the close of this volume, and the former have been very de- 
structive to the sheep. A bounty of three dollars by the State, and 
three dollars by the county, was given for wolf scalps, in the later 
years, and many a man made good wages in catching them at odd 
times. One person received as much as fifty-six dollars for a day's 
work of this kind. Rabbits and feathered game have been plenty at 
all times, and hunting in the proper seasons is indulged in by many. 
We have always had sportsmen of considerable skill, who look upon 
hunting with gun and dog and the other accoutrements of the chase, 
as the best of recreations and who take a special pride in their 
achievements and boast of their deeds, as b.11 hunters have done, 
from Nimrod to this day. Not only our own sportsmen engage in 
hunting, but of late years persons from the large cities and even 
from distant States come into the county during August and Sep- 
tember, sometimes bringing their families with them, and spend a 
couple of months in hunting, especially during the "chicken season" 
and find a period of enjoyment and recuperation better than the 
limited. expensive and formal watering places where fashion, frivol- 
ity and display hold their revels. These visitors usually hire their 
board and lodging at some comfortable farm house for a few weeks 
of quiet country life amid the pure airs of heaven, and luxuriate in 
the fresh rural scenes and glories of nature, or sometimes they take 
up their abode in the villages and spend the long summer days on 
the wide prairies with dog and gun. Frequently a company is 
formed, who take with them several tents, cooking utensils, and 
some bedding with all the necessary hunting equipments, and camp 
out, on the borders of some lake or stream for two or three weeks, 
during the "chicken season." There are State laws regulating the 
taking of the various kinds of game, but while they are well known, 
they are, unfortunately, not closely observed. 

A year's round of hunting sports may be said to begin in the 
winter, with wolves, foxes, rabbits, etc. Then early in the spring 
come swarms of wild geese, ducks and brants about the streams and 
lakes, and cranes in great flocks in the fields everywhere. After a 
month or two, these take their leave, then through June and Julj' 
we have the plovers, snipe, curlews, woodcock and wild j^igeons. 
In August, begins the prairie chicken shooting, lasting over a 
month. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 137 

Then in September and October again come the brants, ducks, 
geese and cranes, and quail, ruffled grouse or pheasants, and par- 
tridges. Where can a pleasanter or more heathful sport be found 
than in hunting over the fields and about the lakes and streams, in 
the hazy, balmy, Indian summer days ? As the winter closes in, 
soon after the first of November, and our cranes, ducks and geese 
leave again, the deer hunting iDractically begins. In the counties in 
Iowa, adjoining this on the south, numerous deer are taken every 
winter, and it is about the beginning of winter that our hunters fit 
out for these expeditions to the deer grounds, in the more northern 
and less settled portions of the State, where several months are 
spent profitably, as well as pleasantly. 

But we should not foi'get the dogs, which do much of the hard 
work of all this sport, and manifest such an intelligent appreciation 
of it too. The hunter and his dog are inseparable companions. The 
trained dogs used in this country are pointers and setters, not those 
which are facetiously said to point for a bone and then "set" behind 
the stove and gnaw it, but dogs which possess a faculty for hunting 
and are specially trained for the business. The setters are trained as 
retrievers and will readily enter the water and bring out the dead 
game. Pointers will also retrieve, but are not so well adapted to 
this work. The intelligence sometimes exhibited by these dogs, in 
the execution of this work, is astonishing, and this fact, with the 
great use they are in the field, accounts for the great prices often 
paid for them. They are usually valued at from ten dollars to 
twenty-five dollars, but often sell for fifty to seventy-five dollars, 
and there is one instance in which the price paid for an extra dog 
was the sum of five hundred dollars ! 

But the great hunting season of this section of country, is the 
chicken season, when the game sought is jDrairie chickens, grouse 
and smaller bii'ds. This season commences about the middle of 
August. The young chickens are then well grown and excellent 
eating. The hunters go out some times alone, but oftener in pairs, 
with their dogs. Frequently three or four men, with as many ladies, 
for they often take part in the sport, start out in an easy riding con- 
veyance, in the bright summer morning, supplied with guns and' 
ammunition, a couple of dogs and a well filled basket of provisions, 
for a day's hunt on the prairies. The excitement of the hunt is 
agreeable. The keen scent and intelligent working of the dogs, the 
starting of the covies, the skillful shooting of the game and the gath- 
ering up of the spoils of the chase, the counting and bragging and 
bluster, are all interesting. 

But there is something more — that which gives tone and zest to 
all this— the bright skies, the fragrance laden breezes, the far reach- 
ing undulating prairies, carpeted with green grasses and innumerable 



138 HISTORY OF 

wild flowers of every hue, the landscape dotted over with verdant 
groves, where nestle the quiet farm houses, the exhilirating air, fill- 
ing the soul with the beauty, variety and enchantment of the scene, 
the hearty dinner in the edge of some shady grove, during a couple 
of hour's nooning, the joke and song, the hap and mishap, the re- 
turn to the field until nightfall, and then the brisk ride home, all 
unite to make up a day of pure enjoyment, long to be remembered. 

"Let others kneel at Pleasure's shrine, 
And lioast the raptures of a 'spree'; 
Hut, ah: a hunter's joy be mine,— 
A hunter's merry life for xae.''—Uolley. 

FISHING. 

But say the Izaak Waltons, what about fishing? It is not every- 
one who cares to travel the prairies for game. Some of us like 
better the pleasure of practicing the angler's art. All of the 
streams and lakes, of which there are many in the county, are 
stocked with fish. The pike, pickerel, red horse, bass, sunfish, 
bullheads, perch, muskalonge, catfish, chubbs, suckers, and some 
other varieties, in all sizes, from twenty-five pounds weight to the 
tiny minnow, are found in our waters. The State fish commissioner 
has also placed in some of our lakes the salmon, white fish and 
some other varieties. 

Seining is not permitted by law, but the hook andlin^, the spear 
and trolling hook are. The spring fishing is best about the time 
when the high waters of the spring freshet begin to go down, the 
high waters having enabled the larger fish to come up the streams. 
It is then the fisherman with the hook and line, or spear, can get 
his string of fish in a very short time, and in this sport men and 
women, boys and girls, in small parties and large parties, with jolly 
laugh and joke, engage with great pleasure, ignoring all the old 
rules of fishing, about noise and telling fibs. 

Boat fishing either in the day time or at night with torches, is 
often embarked io and is an agreeable recreation. But it is not 
only in the spring and summer that fish are caught. They may be 
taken at all times, but certain seasons are better for this sport than 
others and the sport is more followed during these times. Probably 
the larger quantities of fish are taken in the winter. It has long 
been a custom with many to visit the lakes in the winter, when they 
are frozen over, when large quantities are caught, cleaned and 
salted down in barrels for the year's use. In such cases one method 
is to cut a hole in the ice, build a small house over it. so that it 
shall be dark inside, and then by various methods entice the fish to 
the hole, when they are taken with spear and hook. In the spring, 
also, when the ice on the waters begins to melt around the edges, 
the fish collect in great numbers about the outlets and inlets of the 
lakes and are easily taken in great quantities. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 139 

In all this, is briefly indicated how many a pleasant day or ex- 
pedition of a week, is enjoyed and made profitable in fishing. But 
this does not suffice. The true angler does not want wagon loads 
of fish, he despises the spear, he hates noise and bustle. These 
things are too coarse for his placid philosophic mind. The true 
disciple of old Izaak Walton, pensive, kindly old Izaak, with his"pla- 
cid and benevolent countenance, joined to gentle and unaffected man- 
ners," loves the poetry of fishing best. Pull of quiet geneality and 
all the humanities, he is a lover of the pastoral life. He seeks the 
shady nooks along the still waters where he enjoys his quiet fancies, 
or serenely philosophises, while he watches his "sink and bobber," 
patiently waiting for a "bite." There is a fascination in the prac- 
tice of the piscatorial art, which cultured men of all professions ac- 
knowledge and love to enjoy. Yes, for the race of true anglers, 
which we are happy to say is not yet extinct, we have many a seclu- 
ded crystal stream and silvery lakelet, along whose quiet shady 
banks the angler may wander through the long summer day and 
fish and dream his fancies to his heart's content. And now, not to 
discourage, but to amuse, this article is closed with the following 
valuable table prepared by the Detroit Free Press, showing what 
chance a professional man has of catching anything, when he "goes 
a angling." 

Doctors 7 in 50 Merchants 13 in 50 

Lawyers 3 in 50 Professors 1 in 50 

Editors 10 in 50 Small boy with old 

Artists 2 in 50 straw hat and broken 

Architects 12 in 50 suspender 49 in 50 

Bookkeepers 8 in 50 

treason! treason! 

We have now reached in the order of time, the great event of 
1861, in fact one of the most stupendous events in the history of 
the nation — the beginning of the Great Rebellion. The long con- 
test of words, the threats, the excited passions now broke forth in 
an overt act of treason on the part of the southern people. 

On the 12th day of April, Fort Sumpter was attacked by the 
confederates and taken. The first blow was struck, and each side 
— the government and the rebels — both before hesitating to begin, 
now hastened preparations for the conflict. The States of the South 
one after another were seceding from the Union, and the rebels 
were continuing their work of taking possession of the forts, 
arsenals and navy yards in those States. The President issued a 
proclamation, calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers to de- 
fend the Capital. 



140 HISTORY OF 

The Governor of the State, Hon. Alex. Ramsey, issued a proc- 
lamation to the people of the State to organize volunteer military 
companies, arm and drill, so as to be prepared for any emergency. 
Great excitement]existed throughout the State and the whole North. 
The gallant Minnesota First was soon organized and ready to go to 
the front. Everywhere throughout the State, war meetings were 
held and companies formed. Our county was not asleep or behind 
while these great events were taking place. 

On the evening of the 30th of April a large and enthusiastic 
meeting was held at Winnebago City. Eloquent and patriotic 
speeches were made by Geo. H. Goodnow, A. C. Dunn, G. K. Cleve- 
land and others. The Governor's proclamation was read and avolun- 
teer company organized. A number of resolutions were adopted 
with great enthusiasm the first and second of which read as 
follows: 

"Resolved, That, the citizens of Faribault county are in favor of the Union, 
the Constitution and the enforcement of the laws. 

'^ Resolved, That in this hour of peril to our glorious government, wetender 
to Abraham Lincoln, President of these United States, "Our lives, fortunes 
and sacred honor," to aid him in punishing rebels and traitors for assaulting the 
flag of our fathers." 

Almost every man in the village and vicinity joined the com- 
pany, and we are sorry to say we have not the names that we may 
record them here in a Roll of Honor. « 

On the evening of May second a large war meeting of the citi- 
zens of Blue Earth City and vicinity was held. Great enthusiasm 
prevailed. A series of resolutions was adopted amid great cheering, 
condemning the rebellion in the strongest language. We quote 
several of them. 

Resolved. That we, citizens of Faribault county, without reference to those 
party names that have hitherto distinguished us and having unshaken faith in 
the power of right, are unalterably attached to the union of these States and 
the perpetuity of popular government. 

Resolved. That in order that we may render efficient aid to the govern- 
ment, should our services be required, we will immediately organize a company 
of our citizens and take such steps as may be necessary to perfect ourselves in 
military drill and discipline. 

Resolved. That live atmosphere of Faribaxdl County must not he breathed by 
traitors. 

Earnest speeches were made J. B. Wakefield, E. Raymond, J. 
A. Kiesler and Geo. B. Kingsley. A paper was presented for the 
signature of those who wished to enroll their names, as a volunteer 
company, and forty names were set down in less than as many min- 
utes. J. B. Gillit, a gray-haired veteran of sixty years led olf. then 
came E. Raymond. I. S. Mead, J. B. Wakefield, G. B. Kingsley, 
Isaac Botsford. S. T. McKnight, F. A. Squires. H. Tompkins, J. A. 
Kiester, H. P. Const'ans, G. S. Converse, G. S. Miles, H. G. Neal, 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 141 

W. C. Gillit, W. A. Melvin, A. Sortor. H. A. Paunce, W. M. Scott, 

A. Bonwell, A. Pratt, O. Saunders, F. L. Howland, E. C. Youug, A. 
McElroy, L. Billings, Jr., H. Mount, F. A. Blackmer, Martin Sailor, 
J. C. Pratt, A. Johnson, John Beidle, J. K. Pratt, E. C. Ingals, L. 

B. Woodruff, J. Johnson, P. Harris and S. Dow. Many other names 
were afterwards added, of which there is now no record. 

Many of those who enrolled their names in the various com- 
panies formed at the time, subsequently in more permanent organ- 
izations proved their patriotism and sincerity on many a hard fought 
field beneath the southern sun, and some of them to-day, having 
given their lives for their country, sleep the last great sleep, in sol- 
dier's graves. 

"The land is holy where they fought, 
And holy where they fell. 
For by their blood that land was bought. 
The land they loved so well.'" 

THE COMET OF '61. 

While the inhabitants of this small planet called the earth, 
were busy with their cares and labors and ambitions, their joys and 
sorrows, far away in the heavens in the wide fields of space, there 
suddenly appeared a great comet on the 30th day of June, and 
created a great sensation. To the naked eye the head of the comet 
appeared brighter than a star of the first magnitude. "It was 
estimated that on the second day of July the breadth of the head 
of the nucleous was about one hundred and fifty-six thousand miles, 
and its train of light fifteen millions of miles in length." It was 
thought by one astronomer, that the earth passed through the tail 
of this comet. But it sped onward upon its trackless way and soon 
disappeared to the dwellers of this planet. In accordance with the 
old notions — perhaps superstitions — many looked upon this comet 
as the harbinger of a dreadful war and other great calamities. 

"A pathless comet, 



The menace of the universe; 
Still rolling on with innate force, 
Without a sphere, without a course." 

INDEPENDENCE DAY. 

The fourth of July was celebrated at Blue Earth City. The 
largest assembly of the people that had ever occurred in the county 
was seen at that time. The Sunday schools, the Good Templars 
and a large company of soldiers were in attendance in their separ- 
ate organizations. 

The exercises were held in the grove on the Court House 
Square, where a stand, seats and long tables were erected. The 
people assembled in the village and forming a procession marched 



142 • HISTORY OF 

to the grove to the strains of martial music. The Declaration was 
read by Geo. Patten, of Verona, and the address was delivered by 
J. A. Kiester, of Blue Earth City, after which a public, free and 
very bounteous dinner was placed upon the long tables and every- 
body partook heartily. 

Good order prevailed throughout the day and the company en- 
joyed the festivities of the occasion with much satisfaction. Many 
things tended to make this celebration one of more than ordinary 
interest. The rebellion had just broken out. The people were in- 
tensely aroused and indignant, and anxiously watching events. 
There was no other formal celebration in the county, and every jier- 
son in the county had been invited to attend. The prepai'ations 
were ample, and the day in the main favorable, and people were in 
attendance from all parts of the county. 

MEN AND MONEY. 

About the iith of July, President Lincoln issued a proclamation 
calling for 400,000 men and §400,000,000, to put down the Rebellion, 
and the call was responded to in a spirit and with an alacrity which 
made the hearts of loyal men swell with pride and the hope of early 
success. On the second day of August, Congress, then in extra 
session, authorized the raising of 500,000 men and §500,000,000. 

HAD MONEY. 

During the summer many local banks in the western States 
failed. Many of what were known as the free banks of Wisconsin, 
held up, among the last, but there was great uncertainty as to the 
value of their j^aper. All of it was at a greater or less discount and 
kept getting worse until worthless. Of course the psople. the hold- 
ers of this wretched stuff called "money," were the losers. It is 
still remembered that a citizen of this county who had some eight 
hundred dollars of this money, suddenly learned one daj' that the 
whole sura was not worth a copper. During these times there was 
one column of every newspaper which was read with great interest. 
It was the column which contained a list of banks of issue, with the 
ever changing value of their currency. The currency is the life- 
blood of the business of the nation, the soul of all enterprise, the 
incentive to labor, and the people should ever watch its character 
with the greatest scrutiny, for they are the ones who must suffer by 
depreciation or failui'e. If some financial genius shall arise, who 
shall give us banks of deposit of absolute security, and money which 
cannot fail, can never fluctuate in value, or even if liable to failure 
or fluctuation, the loss shall fall, not upon the innocent holders, but 
upon the authority issuing it, he will be entitled to be numbered 
among the world's benefactors. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 143 

WHAT OF THE HARVEST ? 

The harvest commenced about the 24Lh day of July, and the 
husbandman reaped an abundant reward for his toil, in the quantity 
and quality of the grain, but the prices were low, as appears from 
the statement following of the prices of farm products and other 
commodities current at the time: 

Produce.— Wheat, 35@40c; flour, $2.00: corn, 20c; beans, 40c; 
lard, 10c; oats, 18c; potatoes, 20c; eggs, 5c; pork, $3.50@4.00. 

Groceries. — Brown sugar, 10c; coffee sugar, 12^c; tobacco, 
plug, 30@50c; tobacco, pure leaf, 65c; tobacco, fine, 30@,50c; tobacco, 
smoking, 12^@15c; molasses, 80c; syrup, 80c; Rio coffee, 20c; Java 
coffee, 25c; salt, barrel, $4.75 ; salt, lb., 2c; tallow candles, 18ic; 
dried apples, 10c. 

Dry Goods. — Prints, 7@12^c; delains, 20@25c; sheetings, 8@ 
12^c; denims, 12620c; Kentucky Jeans, 25@,35c; cassimere, 40c@ 
$2.00; cotton flannel, 12*@18fc; wool flannel, 37*S:50c. 

improvements. 

The immigration to this county during this year much exceeded 
that of the last year and was very encouraging. Much imjarove- 
ment in the breaking up of new lands and building was made 
throughout the county. Toward the close of the year money became 
easier. Near the end of December a grist mill, the flrst one in the 
county, was put in operation by Geo. H. Goodnow, at Winnebago 
City. This mill was attached to a saw mill and was run by the 
engine of the saw mill. It was a great convenience and did a good 
business. Prior to the starting of this mill the people had to haul 
their grists from thirty to sixty miles to mill. Many a bushel of 
corn, in the early days of this county, was ground in coffee mills, 
small hand-mills and horse-power mills, and the savory remem- 
brance of the Johnny cakes made from the meal ground in this way 
remains with the old settlers to this day. 

the election and county seat contest. 

The Hon. Alex. Ramsey, republican, and Hon. E. O. Hamlin, 
democrat, were the candidates for Governor. 

The Republican County Convention was held at Blue Earth City 
on the 21st day of September, and made the following nominations: 
For Sheriff, P. C. Seely. For Treasurer, Wm. Dustin. For County 
Attorney, N. B. Hyatt. For Surveyor, Geo. Patten. For Coroner, 
L. C. Taylor. For Commissioners, E. M. Ellis, H. Dunham and 
Thomas Blair. 

The Republican District Convention met at Madelia, Sept. 28th. 
and nominated for Representative, B. O. Kempfer, of Watonwan 
county. The democratic party made no nominations for legislative 



144 HISTORY OF 

or county officers, but a greater local issue was before the people 
than that of politics — the question of the removal of the county seat 
was to be decided. 

As the election drew near, the excitement and interest in the 
results f^reatly increased, but all other considerations were sunk for 
the time in the important question of the county seat. Blue Earth 
City could not possibly afford to lose it. Winnebago City would 
gain very much to get it. 

Canvassing and electioneering on this subject was the order of 
the day, and for two weeks before election day, little else was done in 
either of the villages. The county was canvassed from Dan to Ber- 
sheba by both parlies and every voter visited and enlightened upon 
the subject. Blue Earth City had a little the advantage in several 
things, but especially in having a newspaper, while Winnebago City 
had none. 

About the last of September there appeared on the first page 
of the Blue Earth Citij JNVir.s an outline map of the counlj', on 
which each township was represented and the exact location of each 
village — the two contestants, and a line drawn equi-distant at all 
points thereof from Winnebago City and Blue Earth City. This 
line proved the great and unanswerable argument it was held, in fa- 
vor of Blue Earth City, for by it, it was clearly demonstrated on the 
map and everyone could test its accuracy for himself, that about 
three- fourths of the territory of the county, was nearer Biue Earth 
City than to Winnebago City An elaborate article in the interests 
of Blue Earth City also appeared in the same number of the paper, 
setting forth, in the strongest possible light, the reasons against re- 
moval. Winnebago Citj' not to be outdone in spreading information 
on the subject, had a vast number of circulars printed at Mankato, 
answering the article in the Neivs and giving cogent reasons as was 
thought, why the county seat should be removed to Winnebago City, 
and sent them out by messengers into all parts of the countj'. Every 
influence, public and private, and every argument that interest and 
ingenuity could suggest, were used to secure the objects of the re- 
spective parties, but these arguments were too numerous and many 
of them entirely too elaborate and abtruse to be mentioned here, or 
even comprehended, if mentioned, by the people of this day. 

The day — the great day of election came at last. It was the 
ninth day of October. The polls throughout the county were opened 
early. To prevent fraud and illegal voting, Winnebago City had a 
delegation of at least one, generally two, at each of the voting places 
in the south half of the county, and Blue Earth City had a like dele- 
gation at all the voting places in the north half of the county. The 
vote polled was the largest which had yet been cast in the count}', 
and surprised everyone. But there was not over half a dozen illegal 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 145 

votes cast that day in the whole county, if so many. An incident 
occurred at the polls at Blub Earth City during the day which will 
bear repeating: A German of a burly and unkempt appearance 
came up to vote, when his vote was challenged by one of the Winne- 
bago City delegation on the grounds, that he had not been long 
enough a resident of the county to vote. He was asked the question 
how long he had been in the county, when after looking at the chal- 
lenger quietly a few minutes he said in a peculiarly sarcastic manner: 
"Ish been here so long ash ter raise von stack buckveets vot you 
steels ven you comes inter der country — vat you talks you tief ?" 

The official canvass exhibited the following results: 

For Governor — Alex. Ramsey, republican, had 433 votes and 
E. O. Hamlin, democrat, 61. 

For Representative— B. O. Kempfer, having no opposition in 
district, was elected, his vote in this county being 482. 

There was no opposition to any of the republican county candi- 
dates and they had the following number of votes: 

For Treasurer— Wm. Dustia 473 

For .Sheriff— P. C. Seely 463 

For Surveyor— Geo. Patten 480 

For Attorney— K. B. Hyatt. 476 

For Coroner— L. C. Taylor 477 

E. M. Ellis, J. H. Dunham and Thomas Blair were almost unan- 
imously elected commissioners. But the result on the question of 
the removal of the county seat was the matter of the most isrofound 
interest and overshadowed all others. The vote stood: 

For the removal 202 

Against the removal 324 

Blue Earth City won the battle, but it was no childs" play, as it 
"had a foeman worthy of its steel," a foeman though beaten, was 
not conquered, but still held his banners to the breeze and fought 
many a hai-d fight afterwards. 

A CHANGE— GOOD BYE. 

Near the first of November, Mr. Botsford sold out his interest 
in the Blue Earth City Neivs to Messrs. Blackmer & Hyatt. Here is 
Mr. Botsford's "good bye:" 

" Yes, kind friends, good bye. Ere this number of the Blue Earth Oily 
News shall reach you, I will belong wholly and entirely to our venerable "Uncle 
Samuel.'' My sojourn in this county has been pleasant. I have received at 
least double the support I anticipated. Each and every citizen, old and young, 
male and female, have treated rue kindly. I have no fault to find whatever, with 
the people here, and I hope, trust and believe, that they all entertain the 
same feelings toward me. After a deliberate study of the matter, I have come 
to the conclusion that my country needs my services to aid in putting down 
the thousands of armed traitors with which these United States are infested, 



146 HISTOID' OF 

and 1 have accordinRly enlisted in the Blue Earth Cavalry Company 'for three 
years or during the war." 

Isaac Botsford was born in the State of New York in 1830. He 
obtained his education at Lowville (N. Y.) Academy and Whites- 
town (N. Y.) Seminary. He early learned the business of printer 
and publisher. He left his home in the east and came to Albert Lea, 
Freeborn County, Minn., in 1857. and removed to Blue Earth City, 
this county, early in the year 1861. where he remained until his en- 
listment in the military service of the United States, which occurred 
on the tirst day of November, 1861. He became a member of the 
Second Company Minn. Light Cavalry, afterwards known as Co. B. 
Bracketfs Battalion. He states above, that he enlisted for three 
years or during the war. It proved to be "during the war." He re- 
mained continuallj^ in the service until .Tune 1st, 1866, a period of 
four years and seven months. His service was in the South until 
January 1st. 18()4, fighting rebels, and thereafter, until the close of 
his- time, in the Northwest fighting Indians, his company being 
among the very last to be mustered out. 

In 1864, while still in the service, he came home on a short fur- 
iow and was married to Miss Maggie E. Colby, of Freeborn County, 
Minn., and after his final discharge from the service, he took up 
his residence in that county where he still resides. Mr. Bots- 
ford is a member of the Presbyterian Church and in politics a pro 
hibition republican. During his career as a printer anS publisher, 
he was connected with the Freeborn County Eagle, the Blue F.arth 
City Neivs, as we have seen above, and later with the Albert Lea 
Standard. In 1878 he quit business on account of ill health and lived 
a very quiet and retired life. He died at Albert Lea in 18'J2. 

Mr. Hyatt, who assumed chai-ge of the Keios as editor, at the 
date of purchase, in his salutatory, among other things, says: "We 
shall publish a republican paper, but we are not so strongly attached 
to party as to be blind to its faults, or those of its leaders." "We 
hold the primai-y object of a county paper to be the interests of the 
county — it is from the citizens thereof we expect our support and 
in turn we expect to devote our columns to the promotion of their 
best interests. Wherever our paper is read we intend that the beau- 
tiful prairies and fine streams, the abundance of timber and the fer- 
tility of the soil in the already far famed valley of the Blue Earth 
shall be known." 

PROC.RESS OF THE WAR. 

As the great civil war, of which this was the first year, was the 
leading subject of interest and gave character to the times for the 
next four years in this section of countrj' as well as throughout the 
nation, and as many of the citizens of this county took an active part 
in the events of the time, both political and military, it is deemed 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 147 

expedient to give in this history, a brief resume of the leading events 
of the war each year. 

"As one who sleeps and hears across his dream, 
The cry of battles ended long ago." 

In January, as we have already seen, many forts and arsenals 
in the southern States wei'e seized by the rebels. Feburary^9th, Jeff 
Davis and A. H. Stephens were chosen the first, president, and the 
latter, vice-president of the Confederate States for one year. April 
12 14th, Fort Sumpter, S. C, was bombarded and taken. April 20th, 
U. S. Mint at Charlotte, N. C, .seized by the rebels. June 10th, bat- 
tle of Big Bethel, Va. June 18th, battle of Boonville, Mo. July 2d, 
battle near Martinsburg, Va. July 5th, battle at Carthage, Mo. 
July 12th. battle of Rich Mountain, Va. July 13th, battle of Car- 
nickford, Va. July 21st, first battle of Bull Run. Aug. 10th, battle 
of Wilson's Creek, Mo. Aug. 28th, capture of Forts Hatteras and 
Clark. Sept. 12th, battle of Cheat Mountain, Va. Oct. 3d, battle 
of Greenbrier, Va. Oct. 16th, battle of Pilot Knob, Mo. Oct. 21, 
battle of Balls Bluff. Nov. 7th, great naval battle at Hilton's Head, 
S. C. Nov. 8th, battle of Belmont, Mo. In addition to the above 
list there were almost innumerable smaller fights and skirmishes 
both on land and sea. 

The great matter of absorbing interest was the progress of the 
war. Recruiting and enlisting, organizing and drilling were the 
chief business of the times. The war had already developed into 
gigantic proportions. At the close of the year there were already 
two hundred and forty-six vessels, carrying two thousand guns, in 
the navy, and nearly seven hundred thousand men in the armies of 
the United States. 



148 UISTORY OF 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A. D. 1862. 

"I by thee have watched, 
And heard the murmer tales of iron wars: 
And thou has talked of sallies and returns, of trenches, tents. 
Of palisados, frontiers, parapets. 
Of basilisks, of cannon, Culverine 
Of prisoners ransomed and of soldiers slain." 

THE LAWGIVERS. 

The fourth State Legislature met .Tan. 7th and adjourmed March 
7th. The only acts passed specially relating to this county were first, 
"An act to provide for the location and construction of a State road 
from Blue Earth City, in Faribault county, to Mankato in Blue 
Earth county." 

Second. "An act to construct a State I'oad from a point on the 
road leading from Mankato to Mapleton in Blue Earth county, to 
Winnebago City, in Faribault county." «• 

Third, "An act to change the name of Dobson township in Pair- 
bault county, to that of Elmore." 

Fourth, "A memorial to the Congress of the United States for 
the establishment of a mail route from La Crescent to Winnebago 
City." 

The legislature assembled in extra session, September 9th, of 
this year, and had a session of twenty days, and enacted some laws 
of great importance, but none having any special reference to this 
county. We were represented in these several sessions, by Guy K. 
Cleveland in the Senate and B. O. Kempfer in the House. 

THE LOCAL LEGISLATURE. 

The commissioners met January 7th and had a session of two 
days. Thomas Blair was elected chairman. They had another 
meeting April 3d. but the business done was only of a i-outine charac- 
ter, and we shall hasten on to more interesting events. 

THE LAST OF THE NEWS. 

About the 8th of February, Mr. Blackmer, partner of Mr. Hyatt 
in the publication of the Neu-.t. retired, and Mr. A. Bonwell entered 
into partnership with Mr. Hyatt, the latter remaining the active 
editor. 



FARIBAULT COl'NTV, MINNESOTA. 149 

Mr. Blackmer, following the lead of Mr. Botsford, his former 
confrere, enlisted ia the military service of the United States and 
not many months after did gallant service in the defense of Port 
Ridgley, against an attack by the Indians, on the breaking out of 
the Sioux war. During the fight he was wounded, being shot through 
the face, but survived. In April following, Mr. Bonwell leased his 
interest in the News to J. L. Cristie, who had previously been work- 
ing in the ofBce, and he and Mr. Hyatt became partners in the pub- 
lication of the paper. On the 19th day of July the name of the 
paper was changed to The South- West Minnesotian. During the In- 
dian disturbance, about one hundred pounds of the type were melted 
and run into bullets, as there was a scarcity of lead in that great 
emergency. It was designed that these tyjae, theretofore speaking 
to civilized people, through the columns of the paper, should now do 
' good service in speaking to savages from the muzzles of well-loaded 
guns. The paper ceased to be issued for a short time in August, but 
the publication was resumed and a few more numbers appeared, when 
in October it ceased finally — its course was run — editors and work- 
men having all gone, or proposing to go, into the military service. 

Mr. Cristie enlisted in a company of thirty-day men, organized 
in Fillmore county, of this State, and after his discharge therefrom 
he joined Companj^ H, Minnesota Mounted Rangers, and went with 
the Sibley expedition, to the Missouri river. 

Mr. Hyatt, in December of this year, also enlisted in the military 
service and became the captain of his company. Our first editors, 
not only taught, but practiced the duties of patriotism. 

No paper was published in this county after the discontinuance 
of the Minnesotian until the fall of the next year. 

"A REVIVAL." 

During February and March, a memorable revival of religion 
occurred at Blue Earth City and in the town of Elmore. At Blue 
Earth City the meetings were conducted by the Rev. Mr. Vaughan, 
of the United Brethren Church, and in Elmore, by the Rev. Mr. 
Barnard, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Toward the close of 
the meetings, the Rev. Mr. Conrad, of the Presbyterian Church, 
assisted, and other ministers of the gospel took part occasionally 
during the meetings. Very many at these several places determined 
to Ifead a new life and became members of the various religious de- 
nominations existing here at that time. 

This was the first general and important religious awakening 
which had yet occurred in the county. Large and valuable acces- 
sions were made to the several religious bodies, and their future 
permanence secured. It is gratifying to say that many, who at 
that time became church members, still, afttir the lapse of many 



150 HISTOJIY or 

years, continue to fight the good fight and have "kept the faith." 
And it is for those and those only who continue faithful until the 
course is finished, that there is laid up a crown of righteousness, 
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give in that day. 

JCDICIAL. 

The district court this year had a session of only one day. The 
preceding year a session of but one daj' was held. The little busi- 
ness i-eciuired to be done by the courts in this county, during many 
of the first years, while it might not indicate that this county was a 
very favorable locality for lawyers, did indicate the non-litigious 
character of the people and that they were a quiet, orderly class of 
inhabitants, disposed to do justice toward each other, voluntarily, 
which was the fact and which was certainly a high recommendation 
to them. During manj- of the earlier years of the county, the law- 
yers as a rule, discouraged litigation, and often put themselves to 
considerable trouble, without fee or reward, to assist their neigh- 
bors in settling their disputes amicably if possible and this was very 
creditable to the lawyers. 

In the words of Shakespeare, frequently 

•'It pleases time and fortune to lie heavy 
Upon him ♦ ♦ ♦ who, in hot blood, 
Hath stepp'd into the law. which is past depth 
To those that, without heed, plunge into it." • 

THE FARMER'S SOCIETY. 

An adjourned meeting of the agricultural society was held at 
Blue Earth City. April 3rd. at which J. A. Latimer was elected 
president. .1. H. Dunham recording secretary, and Geo. B. Kings- 
ley, treasurer, and various other oftices tilled. 

Twenty-one new members were added at this time and it would 
appear that they gave their notes for the membership fee of one 
dollar, for a resolution was adopted by the meeting, to the effect, 
that notes given for membership fees be paid on or before the first 
da\' of the annual fair. 

Another meeting was held at Blue Earth City. July 2d, at 
which time A. Bon well appears as treasurer. He reports on hand: 
cash, eleven dollars; notes of 1660. fourteen dollars, and notes of 
1862. eighteen dollars. 

The fourth annual fair was held at Winnebago City. October 
1st and 2d. The premium list was quite a long one. but the pre- 
miums awarded appear to have been mainly "diplomas." 



FABIBAULT COUXTY. mXXESOTA. 151 

PATRIOTISiL 

The 4th of July was celebrated at Blue Earth City with consid- 
erable interest. The Rev. Mr. Paine, of Garden City, delivered the 
oration. The day was commemorated at Winnebago City also, by a 
large social gathering in the evening. 

On the first day of July President Lincoln called for 600.000 
more volunteers for a more vigorous prosecution of the war. and on 
the 4th day of August a draft was ordered of 300.000 men to serve 
nine months. The events of the war. the call of the president, the 
draft ordered, created immense activity and enthusiasm in enlist- 
ments and military organization throughout the whole North. 

In consequence of the above call for troops and the draft, the 
board of county commissioners were called together in extra ses- 
sion, on the 12th of August, for the purpose of taking some action 
on behalf of the county to encourage enlistments in the military 
service. Many citizens had alifeady enlisted, and every encourage- 
ment was given by the people generally, but it was thought on this 
call for troops that the county, in its corporate capacity, should 
take some action in this respect. A commendable ambition existed 
among the people, that our county should furnish its quotas of men 
without their being drafted, and an earnest effort was made all 
along, to secure this honor. 

The board adopted the following among other resolutions : 
'•Now. therefore, be it resolved that there be and there is hereby 
appropriated by the County of Faribault, the sum of one thousand 
doUars. payable at the rate of twenty dollars as a bounty to each 
and every resident of said county who shall, after the date hereof 
enlist in the aforesaid military service of the United States, upon 
presentation to the board of satisfactory evidence of enlistment, 
together with proof of residence at the time of enlistment." It was 
then farther resolved, that in the event that the sum of one thousand 
dollars should be insufficient to cover aU enlistments, a further sum 
would be appropriated. This was the first action taken by the 
county, and in the light of subsequent events this little bounty looks 
very s.mall, but it was but the first small indication of greater things 
to be done in the future, noble, generous action in which, we are 
proud to record the fact, our county never failed or faltered. 

On the evening of the 13th of August, a greafwar meeting was 
held at Blue Earth City, which was attended by people from all 
parts of the county. Strong resolutions wei-e adopted in favor of 
the earnest prosecution of the war, eloquent speeches were made, 
and a committee was appointed to solicit donations of money, grain 
and provisions, to be distributed among the families of enlisted sol- 
diers. A similar meeting was held about the same time at Winne- 
bago City and everywhere in the county the spirit of the people was 



152 BISTOnV OF 

aroused to enthusiasm, and recruitinj; and mustering into the ser- 
vice was the business of the day. Those were the times when men 
and boys and little childi'en sang 

"We are coming father Abraham, 
Six riunrlred Thousand strong." 

ANOTHER COMET. 

We find the following amusing item in the Minneaotiau of Aug. 
2d. It was copied from the Mercury. 

"Another comet has made its appearance in our hemisphere and is liegin- 
ninj; to attract attention. At present it is near the pole star, but alas! it has 
no tail. Only think of a comet without a caudal appendagel It reduces the 
character of a comet in pulilic estimation full fifty per cent at once to be mi- 
nus that essential attachment, for surely there is no end. What is its object? 
Comets to be respectable must have all their usual and si>;niflcaut characteris- 
tics. We are not to be huinbut'ged with such halfway llnishing up of the cometic 
properties. We are not going to put up with any half a comet. We want a 
whole one or none. This one may ac(|uire a tail as it approaches the sun and 
thus give us an opportunity to relate a tale about it, but at present, it is a mis- 
erable, sneaking-looking celestial object, and we shall have little to say about 
it." 

THE GOLDEN REWARD. 

The harvest commenced the first of August, and it was a suc- 
cessful one. The crops of wheat, oats and barley were excellent, 
and all rejoiced that the tiller of the soil had received for«his labors 
such an abundant reward. 

THE GREAT MASSACRE. 

A largo harvest had now been mainly secured, immigrants had 
been pouring into the county, prices of farm produce had gone up, 
provisions were plenty, many improvements were being made and 
business had greatly i-evived, when suddenly, while the people were 
engaged in their pursuits and local military interests with their at- 
tention directed to the South, watching the progress of the war, 
there came to them from the North and West the dreadful tidings of 
the Sioux Indian outbreak on the Minnesota frontier — a massacre 
attended with such fiendish murders, outrages and cruelties as the 
faltering tongue told the story, as were never known before. The 
people were horrified, confounded. The stoutest hearts failed 

The terrible news reached this county on the 19th of August. 
The slaughter of the frontier settlers, began the daj- before, at the 
Upper and Lower Sioux Agencies, and at Acton on the 17th. We 
cannot here enter into an extended account of the massacre. A 
few extracts from the standard histories of this atrocious and ap- 
palling event, will suftice to show its extent and character and at- 
tendant incidents. We quote from the History of the Great Mas- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 153 

saci-e by the Sioux Indians, written by Messrs. Bryant and Murch, 
and from several other reliable authorities. 

■'The massacre in Minnesota by the Annuity Sioux Indians in August, 1862, 
marks an epoch in the history of savage races. In their western march across 
the American continent, in the van of a higher civilization, the native red men 
have at different times given sad and fearful evidences of their enmity to the 
dominant white race, but from the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, on the rock- 
bound coast of New England in the winter of 1620, until their descendants had 
passed the center of the continent and reached the lovely prairies of Minne- 
sota, no exhibition of Indian character had so afflicted and appalled the soul 
of humanity, as the fearful and deliberate massacre perpetrated by them in 
August, 1862." 

"The scene of butchery and burning, extended all along the settled frontier 
of Minnesota from the north line of Iowa to the northern part of the State. 
It was the preconcerted and carefully arranged plan of the savages, to kill all the 
whites and desolate the whole state to the Mississippi river, and the plan was 
concocted in profound secrecy."' 

"The blow fell like a storm of thunderbolts from the clear bright heavens. 
Once begun the storm of fierce savage murder in its most horrid and frightful 
forms, rolled on until night came." 

'Down sank the sun, nor ceased the carnage then- 
Tumultuous horrors rent the midnight air.' 
And still rolled on from day to day, until the sad catalogue reached the fearful 
number of two thousand human victims, from the gray haired sire, to the help- 
less infant of a day, wlio lay mangled or dead on the ensanguined field." 

"All we have read of Indian warfare, in the early history of this country is 
tame in contrast with the atrocities of this massacre. Without warning, in 
cold blood, beginning with the murder of their best friends, the whole body of 
the Annuity Sioux commenced a deliberate scheme to exterminate every white 
person upon the land once occupied by them and by them long since sold to the 
United States. In carrying out the bloody scheme, they spared neither age nor 
sex, only reserving for the gratification of their brutal lusts, the few white 
women, whom the rifle, the tomahawk and the scalping knife spared. Nor did 
their fiendish barbarities cease with death, as the mutilated corpses of their 
victims disemboweled, cut limb from limb, or chopped in fragments testified." 
'All died— the wailing babe— the shrieking maid, 
And in the fiood of fire that scathed the glade 
The roofs went down. 
While on the billowy bosom of the air 
Eolled the dread notes of anguish and despair.' 
"Some idea may be formed of the mass of refugees moving before their sav- 
age pursuers. Thirty thousand panic stricken inhabitants at once deserted 
their homes in the midst of an indiscriminate slaughter of men, women and 
children. All this distracted multitude, on foot, on horseback, with teams of 
oxen and horses,from the wide area of eighteen counties, were .on the highways 
and byways, hiding now in sloughs and now in the grass of the open prairies, 
some famishing for water and some dying for want of food, some barefooted, 
some in torn garments and some entirely denuded of clothing, some, by reason 
of wounds, crawling on their hands and dragging their torn limbs after them, 
were all making their way over a country in which no white man could offer 
succor or administer consolation." 

"The unarmed men of the settlements offered no defense, and could offer 
none, but fled before the savage horde, each in his own way." 



154 niSTOltV OF 

"Over the entire border of the State and even near the populous towns on 
the rivers an eye looking' down from above could have feen this human ava- 
lanche of thousands of all at,'es and in all possible plights, the rear ranl<s 
niaiUK'd ami tileedln^' and faint from starvation and loss of blood, continually 
falling into the hands of iuluiman savajjes l<een and llerce on the trail of the 
white man."' 

"The imagination faint and aghast turns from the picture in dismay and 
horror "' 

It must bo romemembered also, that this portion (Faribault 
county) of the Minnesota frontier, was peculiarly situated and in ex- 
treme danger. All along and but a few miles distant from the north 
line of the county, lay the Winnebago Indian reservation, and west 
of the county, a day or two after the outbreak, the country was de- 
serted and open without hinderance to the advance of the Sioux. 

And it was rumored that a league had been formed between the 
Sioux and the Winnebagoes, that the latter should join theformer,if 
they should succeed in taking New Ulm. And there is but little doubt 
that had New Ulm fallen. Mankato and St. Peter would have shared 
the same fate, and that both the Winnebagoes and Chippewas would 
have joined the Sioux. 

On the receipt of the news in this county the most intense ex- 
citement was created. What hour the Indians might make a descent 
on the county was not known. The settlers west of the Blue Earth 
river began to pour into the villages and hundreds passed on without 
stopping, eastward, until the whole county west of th^ river was 
deserted. The inhabitants in their haste and terror gathered up a 
few things, very few too, and deserting their homes, crops and al- 
most everything, tied for their lives from all parts of the county, and 
in a very short time after the exodus had began, a majority of the 
people of the county had left. Some went into the eastern part of 
the State, some into Iowa. In fact a perfect panic prevailed over the 
whole country and extended across the Mississippi river into Wiscon- 
sin. Our county which numbered about 2, 500 population, was reduced 
before the exodus ceased, to about one hundred souls. At one time 
the whole population of the county comprised about forty persons at 
Blue Earth City, about the same number at Winnebago City and a 
very fcAv at other points. Those at Blue Earth City who had de- 
cided to remain went immediately to work to fortify the old log tav- 
ern — the Metropolitan— which had done good service in a like case 
some years before. It was fitted up by building a palisade of logs 
around the house at a distance of about two rods. The logs were 
set on end close together and about two feet in the ground and 
planked on the inside. Port holes were cut through and the whole 
fortification made as strong as possible with the limited means at 
hand. This work was soon done, as there were many willing hands 
and it was the means of inducing many settlers, especially ([uite a 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 155 

number from the town of Verona and some from Martin county to 
stop awhile and await events. At the next alarm, however, most of 
these moved on. 

Arms and ammunition were gotten together hastily.some of the 
type of the printing office, as we have seen above, furnished lead for 
bullets. After a few days a temporary company, under command 
of Capt. R. R. Poster, was formed, for defence, and to give character 
and force to the organization the members were solemnly sworn to 
stand true and defend the country to the last. This company drilled 
occasionally and posted out guards at night, but tlie organization 
was not a strong one and was, as we shall see, soon superceded. 
While out drilling one day, without arms, soon after the excitement 
began, the company being drawn up in such line as the military 
skill of the drill sergeant could produce, the command had just been 
given "eyes right" when one Jos. Landis. residing a few miles east 
of the village, drove up with a half load of grain on his wagon, at 
full speed, right in front of the company and in a very frightened 
manner announced that the Indians were coming over the prairie 
northeast of the village. His wife was on the wagon with him terror 
stricken and crying and confirmed his story. They asserted that 
they had seen the Indians advancing in long lines, on horse back, 
about two miles distance on the prairie. Tlaen came another terror- 
stricken woman, who resided a mile nprtheast of the village, leading 
her blind daughter by the hand and she also confirmed Mr. Landis' 
story. 

And now alas for military discipline and control! The company 
broke and fled for their guns, every one determining to fight on his 
own hook. And the people became panic stricken, wild, running to 
and fro, women crying, children screaming and the confusion was 
indescribable. Teams were hitched up in the greatest haste and the 
wagons filled, pell mell, with men, women and children, and in 
twenty minutes the x'oad to Albert Lea was lined with flying fugi- 
tives. Order could not be restored. Terror had dethroned reason. 
But all did not attempt to go. Some had presence of mind enough 
to know that if the report proved true, to scatter in this manner 
was but to exjiose themselves unprotected on the roads to almost 
certain death. Happily the alarm proved false. A long line of 
cattle, belonging to people who were leaving the country, going 
along on the high prairie, about three miles to the northeast, pre- 
sented the appearance to the excited imaginations of these people 
of a troop of advancing Indians. 

Quiet after a few hours was restored, and a considerable num- 
ber of those who had fled, after going a few miles, returned, but 
some went on their way. 



156 mSTonV OF 

Iq order to learn the slate of the country, there was about this 
time, August 23d, a small detachment of men sent west. Some going 
only as far as East Chain Lakes, in Martin county, but U. G. Davis 
and H. Chesley proceeded to Jackson, in Jackson county and finding 
that some of the settlers had just left, followed them in the direc- 
tion of Esiherville, Iowa, and overtook them. They were the last of 
the residents of that county, and had barely made their escape, with 
their lives. One of their company — a boy of ten years — had his el- 
bow cap shot off by the Indians. Some thirteen people had been 
killed in Jackson county by the savages. 

It was now determined to send the women and children who yet 
remained, to places of greater security in the eastern part of the 
State, and the greater part of them about Blue Earth City were started 
on the 26lh of August. It was indeed a sad time. Most of them 
wont without a cent of money. Few had as much as five dollars. 
They were going among strangers. When they should return, if 
ever, to their homes, or again see their husbands who remained 
to protect the country, their homes and their little accumulations 
of propert}', were questions which the future, which then looked 
gloomy enough, only could tell. In other parts of the county most 
of the women and children had previously left. In fact at this 
time almost all the residents on Coon Creek and the west branch 
of the Blue Earth and most of those west of the river had left, 
deserting everything. The region about Chain Lakes, in Martin 
county and the towns of Elmore, Pilot Grove. Jo Daviess and Ve- 
rona in this county, were wholly deserted, and the county east of the 
Blue Earth river was almost as nearly depopulated. Those who re- 
mained were along the line of the river, but mainly, at the villages 
of Blue Earth City and Winnebago City. 

"At Winnebago City on the 23d of August, a company was 
organized under command of Capt. H. W. HoUey, comprising fifty- 
nine members in all. Twenty of the members were mounted and 
were kept constantly on scouting duty west of the Blue Earth river, 
in the counties of Faribault. Martin and Watonwan. The other 
members of the company remained generally on picket duty in 
guarding the town and country in the immediate vicinity. The 
company made one expedition into Watonwan county, passing 
through Madelia and thence westwardly to the Little Cottonwood 
river. They also made, one expedition to Fir Lake on the border of 
Jackson county, and two expeditions to Chain Lakes in Martin 
countj-." 

The roster of the company was comprised of the following 
names: 

Officers: H. W. Holley, Captain; Jesse Dunham and John Al- 
len, Lieutenants; B. C. Hinkle. D. S. Law. George F. Cleveland and 



FAllIBAVLT COUXTY, MINNESOTA. J57 

W. W. Seeley, Sergeants; B. E. Drake, P. Latimer, F. E. Shephard 
and D. Wier, Corporals. 

Privates: J. W. Anderson. P. F. Austin, L. Bartlett, W. H.' 
Budd. G. C. Burt, F. R. Bennett, F. W. Cady, F. Deudon, G. K. 
Cleveland, L. Christy, W. Clark, L. Dudley, F. J. Eddy, C B. Fobes, 
J. France, G. C. Goodnow, G. H. Goodnow, J. C. Goodnow, M. B. 
Haynes, T. Jenness, J. S. Latimer, A. Latimer, T. Lucas, A. D. Ma- 
son, B. M. Mason, J. McCauley, N. McCauley, A. Moore, D. H. 

Morse, G. K. Moulton, A. Norman, G. Nelson, Nelson, W. Ra- 

dou, E. Rhodes, F. E. Ross, J. Richardson, S. Richardson, G. C. 
Sherwin, H. C. Shoefelt, S. H. Shoefelt, E. Stevens, A. Taplin, J. 
Thayer, S. Waller, J. Washburn, J. C. Woodruff, J. H. Welch. 

During these exciting times, a question arose with the 
county officers, as to what should be done with the public records, 
then principally the auditor's and register's books, in the event of 
the certain advance of the Indians on thi.s locality. It was deter- 
mined that, instead of an attemjit to carry them out of the county, 
the best arrangement would be to bury them, and this was decided 
upon. It was concluded to provide a large, substantial box, bury 
it in the ground, on a certain hill side, and in this deposit the books 
and papers, and cover the box over with earth in such a way as to 
escape observation. The secret of the locality was to be confided 
only to a few certain individuals, largely interested in the safety of 
the books. But this act of prudence did not, as we shall see, be- 
come necessary. 

On the seventh of September, the Fillmore County Rangers, 
under command of Captain N. P. Colburn, arrived at Winnebago 
City, and by direction of Col. Flandrau, who had command of this 
portion of the State, established their headquarters at that point, 
after which the Winnebago City guards, under command of Captain 
Holley, believing their services no longer needed, disbanded. A 
strong stockade was erected at Winnebago City. 

Before the close of August, the erection of a large fort was 
commenced at Blue Earth City. This was a necessity, not only for 
better protection,but to restore confidence to the people many of those 
remaining, saying that they would leave unless this was done. The 
work was rapidly performed. The fort was eight rods square and 
built of sod and earth thrown up six feet high, and having a ditch 
all around three feet deep. On the top of the earthwork was a 
defence, three feet high, of two inch hardwood plank, spiked to up- 
right pieces, set strongly in the earthwork, both on the inside and 
outside. Port holes were cut through at short distances. At two 
corners of the fort were strong bastions, built of hewn logs, set close 
together on end, and having port holes from which the ditches, on 
two sides, could be raked. Houses were erected on the inside and a 



158 HISTOIIV OF 

well duf,'. and all obstructions surrounding the fort, behind which 
an enemy could hide, were demolished. When this fort was com- 
pleted it was certainly a strong work, and it had the desired effect, 
with other things, in restoring some feeling of security and encour- 
aged quite a number to i-emain who would otherwise have left. 

And now, as a little episode, we must record the fact in the 
order of time, that amid all this turmoil, excitement and apprehended 
danger, politics were not neglected. 

On the :29th day of August, in pursuance of a previous call, the 
republican district convention met at Blue Earth City. It was but 
a small and thinly attended meeting, there being only a few dele- 
gates present from Blue Earth City and vicinity, and several from 
Winnebago City. D. G. Shillock, Esq., of Brown County, then dis- 
abled from a wound received in the defense of New Ulm against an 
attack by the Indians, was nominated for senator, and J. B. Wake- 
field, Esq., of Blue Earth City, was nominated for representative. 

But to resume the narrative. On or about the 30th of August a 
party of .some twenty men under command of H. J. Neal, proceeded 
one night to Center Chain lakes in Martin county to relieve a lone 
settler, who it was reported was besieged by Indians. The report 
proved untrue. 

At the close of August, the fort being nearly completed, and 
strong bodies of troops entering upon the frontier to the north and 
west of the county, and the confidence of the people in their secur- 
ity from attack, being now somewhat restored, it was thought expe- 
dient at a meeting held at Blue Earth City, to send a messenger in 
pursuit of the fugitives from this county, to try to induce them to 
return to their homes. .1. A. Kiester, of Blue Earth City, was dele- 
gated for this purpose, and being furnished with a "pass" from the 
.sheriff, which was then necessary, he soon started on his mission. He 
found the people scattered in many directions. Some were at Rice 
lake on their way out of the country. Others at Albert Lea, and 
along the road for eighteen miles east of that place. Some were at 
Geneva; others at Oak Glen and at Wasioja, Mantorville, Ovvatonna. 
Wilton and at intermediate points. Some were induced to I'eturu. 
others would hear to nothing, and either remained where they were, 
or pursued their way to Wisconsin or Iowa. 

Most of these refugees had a hard time of it, as they were com- 
pelled to subsist on the country through which thej" passed. Thej' 
had found many farms and houses deserted, and they helped them- 
selves to green corn, potatoes, chickens and other eatables, and 
stopped in the deserted houses at night. The people they met ap- 
preciated their condition and helped them all they could, and at the 
places where most of them concluded to stop to await events provi- 
ded kindly for them. 



FARIUArLT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 159 

Quite a large number of the fugitives, especially those from 
Blue Earth City and vicinity stopped at Wasioja, in Dodge county, 
where the good 'people provided a house for them and paid them 
every attention. The landlord of the place, Jacob Kelsey, a large- 
sized, generous, open-handed man, a man whose body had to be 
large to cover his great heart, supplied the wayfarers with many 
things for their comfort, and utterly refused to i-eceive pay when it 
was tendered him, saying that "what little he had was free at such 
times, even his whisky." In the meantime, under the call of the 
governor, a new cavalry company of forty-two members was formed 
at Blue Earth City. J. B. Wakefield was elected captain. 

"The company was organized on the 5th of Septembei-, and im- 
mediatly reported to Col. Plandrau and was by him ordered to re- 
main at Blue Earth City and to erect fortifications and adopt means 
for subsisting the men, during the term of service." 

The term of enlistment was thirty days and they were paid and 
furnished with arms and ammunition by the State. Martial law was 
declared and Henry J. Neal Avas appointed provost marshal. P. C. 
Seely, the sheriff of the county acted from the beginning of the ex- 
citement as chief of police in keeping order and enforcing regula- 
tions. The sheriff at that time, in view of the impending draft, was 
invested by law, with peculiar powers. No man was allowed to leave 
the county without a "pass" from him. Under the authority of the 
provost marshal, some thirty horses were "pressed" for the use of 
the company, forage supplied, considerable px'ovisions and other 
necessaries taken, during the thirty days, all of which was duly ap- 
praised and an account thereof kept. Saloons were closed by his 
authority and persons going out of the county with arms and am- 
munition, were stopped by the sheriff and required to deliver up their 
arms and ammunition, as they were needed here. 

"Under this organization daily communication was kept up by 
means of couriers, both with the colonel's headquarters at South 
Bend, and the Iowa forces located at Iowa Lake, near the southern 
boundary of the State." 

Guards were kept out during the day, eight and ten miles west 
of the Blue Earth river, and at night pickets were placed out around 
the village. Scouting parties of six to ten well-mounted men were 
sent to the west and northwest and it was their duty- to range the 
country and report any signs of Indians. 

Soon after the organization of the company another expedition 
of five or six well armed and well-mounted men, under Lieut. Davy 
scoured the country as far west as Estherville and Spirit Lake, in 
Iowa, at both of. which places they assisted the people, who yet 
remained there, in forming companies for home defense. In a few 
days this squad returned and reported the country, in Minnesota, 
through which they passed, deserted and silent. 



160 HISTOliY or 

The company at Blue Earth City, after doing good service in 
man}' ways, disbanded on the "ith day of October, tlie term of en- 
listment having expired. 

ROSTEIJ OF THE BLUE EARTH CITY CAVALRY. 

Officers— J B. Wakefield. Captain: P. B. Davy and O. G. Davis. 
Lieutenants: W. B. Silliman, H. P. Conslans. J. C. Howlaad and 
R. R. McCrary. Sergeants; A. Johnson, E. C Butler, C. S. Smith. 
H. Sellen. Corporals: E. M. Ellis. Quartermaster. 

Privates— L. Billings. W. Baldwin. D. E. Brunson. W. Dustin, 
I. Dane. H. Dane. K. R. Foster. R. W. Foster. W. C. Gillit. G. H. 
Rowland. W. Hill. A. C. Ingalls, H. Lutz. S. Leslie. S. Landis. S. T. 
McKnight, L S. Mead. R. Moore. W. C. Maynard. H. J. Neal. T. W. 
Newton. J. A. Rose. R. A. Ream. J. Richai'd, A. J. Rose. M. Sailor. 
.J. -M. Sailor. A. Sailor. J. Sailor. P. C. Seely.. 

"From the desposition now within the boundaries commanded 
by Colonel Fkindrau. they held the entire frontier from New Ulm 
down the Minnesota to South Bend and thence up the Blue Earth 
river to the Iowa line with two advanced posts on the Watonwan 
and at Lake Martin. No substantial change was made on this line 
during the period of active hostilities." In addition to these pre- 
cautions, scouting parties were patrolling the countrj' in all direc- 
tions and comparative security was again established. , Govern- 
ment troops, too. were soon on the frontier and advancing into the 
Indian country and the savages were driven far west, but of these 
military operations, we cannot write here, except to give the fol- 
lowing brief summary. As was stated above, the outbreak at the 
Sioux Agencies, began on the 18th of August. An attack was made 
by the savages on New Ulm. on the 19th. Oa the 20th they at- 
tacked and besieged Fort Ridgley and on the 25th they made a 
second attack on New Ulm. On the 30th they began the siege of 
Fort Abercrombie. The bloody affair at Birch Coolie, occurred on 
the 2d of September. On the 23d of September the battle of Wood 
Lake was fought and the savages defeated. Some of the Indains now 
began to ask terms of peace. About the 26th of September thej' sur- 
rendered many captives at Camp Release. Many Indians about this 
time surrendered themselves and others were brought in. while many 
others still hostile retreated to the west and north. Soon after a 
military commission was instituted which sat until about the 5th 
of November, before whom many of these wretches were tried for 
murder, rape and other crimes. Three hundred and twenty-one 
Indians and there allies, were found guilty, three hundred and 
three of whom were condemned to death, thirty-eight only however 
were finally executed, as will be seen hereafter. 



FARIBAULT GOCNTY, MINNESOTA. 161 

Most of the settlers of this county who had left, gradually re- 
turned to their homes, and business revived somewhat, and affairs 
settled down in their ordinary channels. But yet the people were 
timid, and the country full of rumors, and there were still prowling 
Indians on the frontier. 

Fortunately no attack was made on this county, no murders 
committed, and no property destroyed directly by the Indians, but 
the damage to the county, in consequence of the outbreak, was 
immense. A vast amount of property, because of neglect and 
abandonment, was lost and destroyed, immigration entii-ely stop- 
ped, improvements ended for the year, and years were required to 
regain the lost ground. 

We may conclude this reference to the great massacre by the 
remark that while no excuse is possible for this Indian outbreak 
and the diabolical outrages perpetrated by the savages, and while 
their atrocious deeds deserved immediate and certain death, very 
much on the same grounds that a ferocious wild beast should be 
exterminated, yet there were many who thought and some who said, 
that the coldblooded, calculating frauds, personal insults and the 
public and private wrongs constantly j^racticed upon this ignorant 
people for many years by some white men in the capacity of Indian 
agents, traders and their subordinates, would come as near an 
excuse as anything possibly could, and some even expressed the 
view that the excuse would have been sufficient if the retribution 
had fallen only upon those whose villanies. greed and lusts added a 
principal cause to others which already existed, for this uprising 
upon the jjart of the savages. 

THE COUNTY BOARD AGAIN. 

The commissioners met on the second day of September, and 
after making several appointments immediately adjourned to the 
twenty- third, the record stating that "owing to the disturbed state 
of the country, occasioned by the the recent outbreak of the Sioux 
Indians and the general apprehensions of danger on the frontier, 
it was thought best to postpone the business before the board." On 
the twenty-third, they assembled again, and for the last time this 
year. They transacted a large amount of business, among which 
we find the issuing of the first bounty orders of twenty dollars each, 
to some thirty-six citizens who had just enlisted in Capt. Skaro's 
Company, of the Ninth Regiment of Minnesota Volunteers. 

THE VERDICT OF THE BALLOT. 

Wm. Windom was the republican and Andrew G. Chatfield the 
democratic candidate for congi-ess in this, the First district, and we 
have alreadj' seen that the nominees for legislative honors were D. 
G. Shillock for the Senate and J. B. Wakefield for the House. 



162 HlSTOnV OF 

On the 23tl day of September, a Union Republican County Con- 
vention was held at Blue Earth City, when the following nomina- 
tions for county offices were made: 

For Auditor — A. Bonwell. 

Rejrister of Deeds — F. M. Pierce. 

County Surveyor — W. W. Seely. 

Judge of Probate — A. Preston. 

Coroner— David Pratt. 

Court Commissioner — Geo. D. McArthur. 

The Democratic party made no nominations for county offices. 
The election was held on the fourth day of November and the 
following was the result: For Senator. D. G. Shillockhad 260 votes, 
and for Representative. J. B. Wakefield 231. They had also a ma- 
jority throughout the legislative district, and were elected. 

For Auditor. A. Bonwell had 259 votes. For Register of Deeds, 
F. M. Pierce had 12-t votes and J. A. Kiester 136 votes. For Judge 
of Probate. A. Preston had 253, and for Surveyor. W. W. Seely had 
251 votes. George D. McArthur had 242 votes for Court Commis- 
sioner, and David Pratt 190, I. S. Mead 43, and S. Shroeder 13 
votes for Coroner, and E. M. Ellis was elected County Commissioner 
for district No. One. 

THE BLOODY RECORD. 

The year was one of very great activity in military and naval 
affairs in the United States. Many terriffic battles were fought, and 
the skirmishes and smaller conflicts were almost innumerable. The 
Union armies were attended with many victories, as well as with 
many strange and unaccountable reverses. The following is a par- 
tial summary of the principle battles and events of the year. 

January 2d, battle Port Royal Island, S. C. Jan. 8th. battle 
Silver Creek. Mo. Jan. lyth. battle Mill Springs, Ky. Feb 6th, 
Ft. Henry captured. Feb. 8th, great battle on Roanoke Island. Feb. 
16th, Ft. Donaldson taken. Feb. 19th, Jeff Davis and A. H. Stevens 
elected permanent president and vice-president of "'Confederate 
States." Feb. 23d, Nashville, Tenn.. occupied by Union forces. 
March 6-8th, battle of Pea Ridge, Ark. March 9th, great fight be- 
tween the iron clads Monitor and Merrimack. March 14th. battle 
of Newburn, N. C. March 23d, battle Winchester, Va. April 6-7th, 
battle Pittsburg landing. 11th, Ft. Pulaski taken. 16th. slav- 
ery abolished in District of Columbia bj' Congress. 25th, Com. 
Farragut captured New Orleans. May 5th, battle Williamsburg, 
Va. 24th. battle Bottoms Bridge. 25th, battle Winchester. Va. 
31st. battle Fair Oaks, Va. June 8th. battle Cross Keys. Va. ]4th, 
battle James Island, S. C. 19th, Congress prohibits slavery in the 
territories. 25th, battle Fair Oaks, Va. again. 26th, battle Mech- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 163 

anicsville, Va. 28th, battle before Richmond. 30th, battles White 
Oak Swamp and Charles City Cross roads, Va. July 1st, battle 
Malvern Hill, Va. 18th, Southern raid into Indiana. Aug. 5th, bat- 
tle Baton Rouge. 9th, battle Cedar Mountain, Va. 28th, battle 
Centerville, Va. 29th. battle Groveton, Va. 30th, battle Richmond, 
Ky. 31st, battle Weldon, Va. Sept. 1st, three battles, Chantilla. 
Va. , Britton's Lane, Tenn . and Jackson, Tenn. 14th, battle South 
Mountain, Md. 16-17th, battle Antietam, Md. 20th, battle luka, Miss. 
22d, preliminary proclamation issued by President Lincoln in rela- 
tion to emancipation of slaves. Oct. 3d, battle Corinth, Miss. 8 9th, 
battle Perryville, Ky. loth, battle near Richmond, Ky. 19th, bat- 
tle near Gallatin, Tex. 22d, battle Maysville, Ark. Nov. 28th, bat- 
tle Cane Hill, Ark. Dec. 5th, battle Coffeeville, Miss. 7th, battle 
Prairie Grove, Ark. 13th, battle Fredericksburg, Va. 31st, battle 
Murfeesboro commenced. The several fights with the Indians, in 
our own State are mentioned elsewhere. 

The close of the year was signalized by the hanging on the 
twenty-sixth day of December, at Mankato, of thirty- eight (38) 
Indians and half breeds who had been engaged in the massacre 
of August, and had been tried by the commission and sentenced 
to death. 

Many of them were ]*eaders of the Indians in the massacre, and 
' all of them were proved guilty of crimes perpetrated during the 
outbreak too atrocious to name in a printed book or even speak of 
except in whispers. Their execution was approved by almost the 
universal judgment of the world. They were all hung upon the same 
immense scaffold at the same time. The drop was so arranged as 
to fall from iinder all of Jhem at the same instance. This was the 
most extensive execution of the kind known in history. 

Many of the citizens of this county were in attendance to see 
the infliction of this just puiiishment. 

The year was called the ''dark hour" of the rebellion. It was 
certainly the darkest and most memorable in the history of the 
State, characterized as it was by the slaughter of its citizens, in the 
most bloody massaci'e ever known. And it was a memorable year 
in the history of our county which had just recovered from years 
of discouragement, to be thrown back again to more years of ill- 
requited labor, and waiting for long deferred prosperity. 

"Peacel Shall the world outwearied ever see 
It« universal reign? * » * 
Will nations learn that love not enmity 
Is Heaven's first law?" 



1G4 HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER IX. 

A. D. 1863. 

O, such a day, 
So frought, so followed, and so fairly won, 
Came not, till now, to di^,'nify the times. 
Since Caesar's fortuuesl— S/taAcspedi-c. 

The winter of 1862-3 was very mild and pleasant. There was 
but little snow and but little very cold weather. It was, in fact, the 
most pleasant and genial winter yet known, since the settlement of 
the county, and somewhat more sickly than any preceding one. 
But it is not meant to assert by this statement, that there was no 
cold or stormj' weather whatever. The winter is sjioken of only 
generally and comparatively, the only manner, as a rule, in which 
we can speak of the weather conditions and seasons. 

AN OBSERVATION. 

In writing the history of a people, it is, of coui'&e, necessary 
that their manners and customs, their public, private and social ob- 
servances, their holidays and principal recreations, even the folk- 
lore of the country should be alluded to, in order to obtain a proper 
understanding of the times and the character of the people. These 
things have much to do with the makeup 'of life and have their in- 
fluence upon the people and times. Thej'^ are also matters of his- 
toric fact, which can no more be overlooked than any other import- 
ant fact and events of the times — they are a part of the history. 
Therefore it is, that frequent reference is made to the customs, the 
holiday observances and prevailing amusements, of the times of 
which we write. 

NEW YEAR'S DAY. 

Hear the story of the bells. 
The New Year's bells! 
Hark how their music sways and swells 
From out the old lielfry, dark and hi^'h, 
Kow down through the valley, now up to the sky, 
Swinging and climbing, 
And ringing and chiming.— 3/r.s. Blim. 

The first day of .January, or New Years day, is a legal holiday 
in most of the States. The day has no special historical, and until 
lately, no political significance, like most other holidaj's. It is the 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 165 

day, however, that begins a new year, and we write a new date (and 
generally make a mistake about it too) and by common consent and 
immemorial usage, we observe the day as a holiday. 

During many centuries, there was no agreement among the vari- 
ous peoples of the earth, as to the day of the year, which should be 
the beginning of the new year. Among some of them the year com- 
menced about March 1st, with others about March 21st, March 22d, 
March 25th, April 1st, Easter day, June 22d, September 1st, Septem- 
ber 22d, December 22d, December 25th, and some at other dates, 
being governed mainly by the times of the vernal and autumnal 
equinoxes and the winter and summer solstices. In 1752, January 
1st, by act of the British Parliament, was established as the first day, 
or beginning of the year, and is now generally so considered among 
civilized nations. 

But for many centuries before the first day of January was 
established as the first day of the new year, it was celebrated re- 
ligiously as the octave of Christmas, and as the feast of the circum- 
cision of Christ. 

Although formerly differing as to the day on which the year 
should begin, it appears that all ancient and modern civilized peo- 
ples celebrate the event with certain special festivities. Among 
the Chinese the New Year's festival has, for centuries, been the 
greatest festival of the year. 

Of the social customs incident to this holiday it may be said that 
balls and parties are frequent, the closing up of business houses, 
the printer's devil's New Year's address, the gathering of neighbors 
to eat good dinners, and the giving and receiving New Year's gifts, 
which, by the way, is a very ancient custom, are common through- 
out the country. The custom of making social New Year's calls by 
the gentlemen, which seems to have originated in New York City 
in the times of the Dutch, now prevails in many parts of the coun- 
try, especially in the cities. In fact the New Year's day festivities 
are included in the period known as Christmas-tide, the holidays, 
and much the same observances which prevail on Christmas are had 
on New Year's day, the same jollity and geniality, and while on 
Christmas we hear the kindly greeting, "a merry Christmas," now 
on every hand we have the pleasant salutation, "a happy New 
Year." 

Religious services on New Year's day are quite common, and a 
custom also obtains among some religious denomonations of hold- 
ing "watch meetings" during the preceding night, until after twelve 
o'clock, when the new year is ushered in. Prayers are offered to 
God for the blessings of the past, and his forgiveness implored for 
the sins, and follies, and shortcomings of the year gone, and His 
favor and guidance invoked for the year to come. 



1C6 II/STOHV (IF 

Quite similar to that mentioned is the beautiful custom found in 
some localities of devout people gathering in the parish church, 
where solemn services and litanies are said aud as the hour ap- 
proaches twelve, the bell is solemnlj* tolled, announcing the dying 
year, and as the hands upon the dial pass the twelve the bell rings 
merrily, in. honor of the new year. 

"Ring happy bells across the snow, 
Rhig in the nolilcr niodi.'S of life, ' 
Ring out the old, ring in the new." 

And we should not forget here to name the fact that this day is 
also famous for new resolutions of amendment, reform, retrench- 
ment, and the like, which are usually broken before the first three 
months of the new year are out. But it is wise to make such reso- 
lutions and keep them. A noted author once wrote truly that "the 
person who arrives at a new year without any special stir of desire 
to be better, and to do better during its golden possibilities, is to be 
pitied. He has lost his enthusiasm, and the embers of his life's 
happiness are faded and wan." 

On the first day of January of this year — 1863 — President Lin- 
coln issued the great Proclamation of Emancipation of the slaves 
in the rebel states, and human chattel slavery was forever destroyed 
in this nation so far as law could then do it from that hour. 

This God-like act, in wisdom, power, justice antl mercj', set 
free forever four millions of human beings from the thraldom of 
the most odious slavery the world has ever seen, and this great 
deed will bear the name of Abraham Lincoln, as the Emancipator, 
to all future generations. 

The coloi-ed race in America can well, forever hereafter, cele- 
brate Nen' Year's Day as the greatest day — the fourth of July in 
the history of their race, and all our citizens may well observe it be- 
cause of this great act which delivered the land from this burden 
of national weakness and crime. 

New Year's Day has always been observed in this county, usu- 
ally according to the customs which prevailed in the New England 
and Middle States, but as a large proportion of the people are of 
foreign birth, the usuages and customs incident to this day, in the 
fatherland of these citizens, are also quite prevalent. 

THE LAWC;iVER.S. 

On the sixth day of January the fifth Stale legislature assembled 
at the Capilol in St. Paul. The session, as usual, lasted sixty days. 

Our district was represented at this session by D. G. Siiillock, 
of Brown County, in the Senate, and Jas. B. "Wakefield, of this 
county, in the House. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 167 

Our couuty was not needing much legislation at this time, as we 
find that the only acts having any exclusive reference to this county 
were "An act for the relief of school district No. 18," and "An Act 
fixing the time of holding courts in the various counties in the third, 
fifth and sixth judicial districts," which assigned the third Monday 
of May for the beginning of the term of our district court. 

Alexander Ramsey was elected United States Senator to suc- 
ceed Henry M. Rice. 

THE COUNTY COMPTROLLERS. 

The commissioners met on the sixth day of Januajs^' and orgSna- 
ized, by electing J. H. Dunham, of Verona, chairman, for the year. 
The business done at this session is of no interest to the reader. 
They met again on the 23rd day of March, when in pursuance of the 
militia law, they proceeded to divide the county into six (6) militia 
districts, and the eleventh day of April was appointed as the day of 
election of company officers in each district. 

This was the first and last organization of the militia in this 
county, and it was but imperfectly done. A military spirit prevailed 
throughout the whole country, as may be naturally supposed, in 
view of the war, and it was thought best to encourage it and give 
an opportunity for local military organization and discipline, thus 
forming in this, as exists in many other countries, a body of 
reserves and hence the old militia system was reinstated. It 
was not a success. But few of the districts in this county or- 
ganized by the election of officers. The people, generally, did not 
have much faith in the system, and were much inclined to ridicule 
the whole thing, and after a few ragamuffin parades, with hoe 
handles, broom sticks, umbrellas and a few condemned guns for 
arms, the whole matter was abandoned as a farce, and as not likely 
to pi-oduce heroes, or even well-drilled soldiers. The State Militia 
is now named the National Guard. 

THE SPRING. WAR PRICES. 

The spring of this year was very favorable to eai'ly seeding, 
and the weather was quite agreeable. Seeding commenced April 
1st. During the latter half of April and through May — a period of 
six to eight weeks,— there was no rain whatever in a large part of 
the county, yet the crops did not suffer materially, and both wheat 
and oats were more than average crops. 

In consequence of the war, dry goods and groceries, which had 
been for some time gradually advancing, reached in March of this 
year, a pretty high figure. Common cotton sheeting sold at fifty 
cents per yard. Calicoes from thirty-three to forty cents. Cotton 
shirting forty-five to sixty cents. Coffee forty to fifty cents per 



168 EISTOnV OF 

pound. Tea. the cheapest kind, about equal to dried prairie grass, 
one dollar and fifty cents per pound. Sugar sixteen to twenty five 
cents per pound. Almost everything bought in the stores averaged 
about equally high in price, and these high prices, with some fiuc- 
tuations, generally ascending Huctuations, continued several years. 

Our old settlers will remember, that those were the times of 
barley, chicory, carrot, wheat, rye and pea coffee, of pennyroyal 
and sage tea and no sugar in either. The people generally, with 
few exceptions indeed, in this section of country, used these arti- 
cles, for several years, during the war, as substitutes for the original 
articles. And it should be recorded too, that many a good housewife 
acquired great skill in the manufacture of these beverages, mak- 
ing them so nearly like the genuine, as to deceive "the very elect." 

But the people of the North were not quite so badly olT as their 
belligerent brethren in the South, and that was a great consolation. 
It appears about the 1st of April, the following prices were current 
at Richmond, Va.. within the rebel lines, butter §3.50 per lb., hams 
fl.45 per lb., candles 83.00 per lb., coffee §;4. 50 per lb., corn $7.50 
per bushel. So much for mere bread-stuffs and the like, but that 
article of prime necessity in that country — brandy, was ^24.00 per 
gallon ! 

INDIAN MURDERS. 

In April, five or six persons were killed on the Watonwan river 
and several horses stolen by the Indians, creating considerable ex- 
citement. 

During the summer Gen. Sibley, with about three thousand 
troops, made an expedition into the Indian country, driving the In- 
dians toward the upper Missouri. Gen. Sully, with an equal force, 
advanced into the region occupied by the Indians, by way of the Mis- 
souri river. A number of battles were fought, many Indians killed, 
and much of their property desti'oyed. These expeditions gave 
peace to the border settlements during this year. With the expedi- 
tion of Gen. Sibley, there were many soldiers who were residents of 
this county, in the regiment of Minn. Mounted Rangers. The com- 
pany of Capt. P. B. Davy, of Blue Earth City, composed largely of 
residents of this county, and the company of Capt. Austin, in which 
were quite a number of our citizens, were with the Sibley exjjedi- 
tion. There were also some others of our citizens in other com- 
panies. Among the events of the Indian campaign of this year, we 
note that, on the 3d day of July. Little Crow, the principal leader of 
the Indians in the great massacre, was killed. On the 24th of July 
the battle of Big Mound occurred, and on the 26th the battle of Dead 
Buffalo Lake. On the 2Sth of July the battle of Stoney Lake took 
place. 



FARIBAULT CQUNTY, MINNESOTA. 169 

In May of this year, James B. Wakefield, of this county, was 
appointed U. S. Provost Marshal of the district composed of this 
county and Martin, and held the office until August, 1864. The prin- 
cipal duties of the office were the enrollment and report of names of 
all persons liable to render military service, and the apprehension 
of deserters. 

THE JUDICIARY. 

The District Court commenced its annual session May 18th. The 
session lasted until Saturday evening following, being by far the 
longest term yet held in the county and although much business 
was done, there was none of special importance, or of public interest. 

Some attorney who reads the above item, may be hard up for an 
authority on some point and may thank the writer for the sugges- 
tion contained in the following anecdote taken from a newspaper. 

"Some years ago at the trial of a cause before a justice of the peace in one 
of the southern States, a decided novel legal authority was cited by one of the 
learned members of the bar, which wrought some slight confusion in the court- 
room. 

"The court will please observe," remarlced this acute counsel, with much de- 
liberation and in a most ponderous manner, "that in the case of Shylock vs. An- 
tonio, although judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff, yet circum- 
stances prevented the execution which had issued from being carried into effect, 
in spite of that fact." 

"To what case," inquired the justice, with a face overspread with perplex- 
ity, "did the court understand the gentleman to refer?" 

"Shylock vs. Antonio, 2d Shakespeare, page 235, Johnson's edition, "returned 
the counsel solemnly. "The court will there find the case reported in full." 

$6,661 



100 



On the 28th day of May, the county board held a session, the 
business of which is noted elsewhere. On the 6th day of July, they 
again assembled and among other business, on reading a petition of 
certain soldiers who had enlisted in the Regiment of Minnesota Mount- 
ed Rangers for one year, the board directed that one-third of the 
county bounty paid to three year's men, (820.00) be allowed the peti- 
tioners, to-wit: the sumof §6.66s in county orders. The orders were 
then worth about fifty eight cents on the dollar. If three year's 
men were entitled to twenty dollars, there was no good reason why 
one year's men should not have one-third of that sum. The old 
soldiers still occasionally speak laughingly of this bounty. 

A WAIF. 

In a sketch of the county, published in 1868, we find the follow- 
ing statement in reference to this year: "1863. In this year immi- 
gration again flowed into the county, but still not to the ex- 
tent it would had there been no Indian troubles the preceding year. 



170 HISTORY (ti- 

lt is correctly estimated that the progress of settlement and im- 
provement was retarded at least two years, yet in this year some of 
the damage was repaired, confidence in the security of the county 
became restored, money became more plenty, the crops were a fair 
average and the prices good." 

THANKSGIVING. 

The sixth day of August was set apart and designated by the 
President as a day of national thanksgiving to Almighty God, who 
holdeth in his hands the fate of nations, for the great victories 
which had lately attended the Union arms. 

Again in December, a day of public thanksgiving was appointed. 
Both of these occasions were generally observed in an appropriate 
manner in this county. 

"This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this is the 
hand that is stretched out upon all the nations." — Is. 14:2G. 

THE BOARD AGAIN. 

An important session of the Board of County Commissioners 
was held on the first day of September. District school examiners 
were appointed as follows: J. A. Kiester for first district, F. \V. 
Cady for second district and J. L. Weir for third district. 

But the most important part of their business related to the 
survey and appraisal of the school lands. Albin .Johnson and An- 
drew C. Dunn were appointed appraisers in behalf of the county, 
who were to act in this matter in conjunction with George D. Mc- 
Arthur appointed by the State, and in view of the survey of these 
lands, John A. Dean was appointed county surveyor. 

As a matter of historic interest a brief explanation of our school 
land system is proper here. 

The general government released to the State two sections of 
government lands in each township in the State, being sections six- 
teen and thirty-six, to be disposed of by the State to create a per- 
manent fund for the benefit of common schools. Under the school 
land system of the State, these lands, when timbered, in districts 
where timber is scarce, are surveyed by state authority, and sub- 
divided into two and a half, five and ten acre lots and blocks. The 
appraisers then fix a value per acre on each lot and block and also 
on each forty acre tract of prairie land. The lands are then of- 
fered for sale at public auction to the highest bidder at such times 
in each county as the commissioners of the State land office may fix, 
ample public notice having been first given. But no lands are sold 
below the appraised value. On timber lands where timber is valu- 
able, fifty to seventy-five per cent of the purchase money must be 
paid at the time of purchase, and the balance may run twenty years 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 171 

at seven per cent interest, payable annually. Prairie lands are sold 
on the same terms, except that but fifteen per cent, is required to 
be paid at the time of purchase. Only such proportion of the lands 
are sold as the commissioner may from time to time deem expe- 
dient. The original number of acres of school lands in this county 
alone was 25,196. 

From these sales the State has secured a magnificent school 
fund which is continually increasing, and which it is sincerely hoped 
may never be squandered. 

THE FARMERS' EXHIBITION. 

The fair of the Agricultural Society was held at Blue Earth City 
on the seventh and eighth days of October. Daniel Birdsall, Esq., 
delivered the annual address. 

HOMICIDE. 

On the 22nd day of October, a Frenchman named Crapau, was 
shot at Walnut Lake, in this county, by a neighbor named Merry. 
Crapau died instantly. The affair was caused by an old dispute 
about a land claim. Merry surrendered himself to the officers of the 
law, and on an examination before a Justice of the Peace, he was 
discharged, it appearing, as was alleged, that he was justified in 
the killing, because necessary to save his own life. But after all it 
was not a very neighborly, and certainly not a very merry act. 

THE WHIG OF 76. 

On the 31st day of October appeared the first member of the 
"Whig of 76," issued at Winnebago City, by Carr Huntington, 
editor and proprietor. It was a small, six column, four page sheet, 
very neatly printed. This was the first paper published at Winne- 
bago City. The editor says in his opening editorial, "Among other 
duties we should like to be able to show to the people of other sec- 
tions the advantages which lie neglected in the beautiful prairies by 
which we are surrounded, fairer, richer, than the sun shines on 
elsewhere. Faribault as an agricultural county, is capable of mak- 
ing rich a hundred thousand inhabitants, and of exporting ten million 
bushels of wheat annually, to be raised on a surface of twenty towns, 
six miles square each. The people to that number ought to be 
here. As soon as they arrive, the acres will be given them for a 
perpetual inheritance." The paper was union republican in politics. 

It is claimed that the first newspaper published in America and 
which was printed on the first press in America, was a paper named 
the Freeman's Oath, published at Cambridge, Mass., in 1639. A 
paper was issued at Boston, Mass., Septmber 25th, 1690. It was de- 
signed to be a monthly, but it was immediately suppressed. But 
one copy of it now remains in existence. The News Letter, published 



172 HISTOUY Oh 

in Boston in 1704, is sometimes, though erroneously, deemed the 
first American newspaper. It was eight by twelve inches in size. 
In the first half of the eighteenth century quite a number of news- 
papers were established, being located mainly in the large cities. 
Their price was high and circulation limited, and they wei-e but 
sorry sheets in comparison with the great papers of the present 
day. 

"There are eight newspapers in the United States which claim to be over 
one hundred years old. The names of the papers and the dates when they are 
said to liave been established, are as follows: Annapolis (Md.) Gazelle, 1745; 
Portsmouth (N. II.) Gazette, 1756: Newport (R. I.) Mercury, 1758; New London 
(Conn.) Gazette, 1753: Hartford (Conn.) Coxnoit, 1764; New Haven (Conn.) /'(Koki!, 
1767; Salem (Mass) Gazette, 1768; Worcester (Mass.) Spij, 1770." 

There are now — 1881, published in the United States, about nine 
hundred daily papers, and the triweekly, semi weekly and weekly 
papers aggregate eight thousand five hundred, with a circulation of 
fourteen millions and there are eight hundred monthlies with a cir- 
culation of four millions. The circulation of some of these papers 
is very great, running from thirty thousand, to two hundred thous- 
and copies. The circulation of ordinary country papers was all the 
way from one hundred and fifty copies into one and two thousand. 

The circulation of the New York Ledger, has at times exceeded 
four hundred thousand copies. Some years ago a weeklj; paper was 
started in New York named the "Advocate." which was reported to 
have reached a circulation of over six hundred thousand, the great- 
est ever known up to this time. It ceased for some reason to be is- 
sued after an existence of a couple of years. 

The first Minnesota newspaper, was the "Minnesota Register,"' 
and bears date St. Paul, April 27th, 1849, but it was printed at Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio. The first newspaper printed in Minnesota, was the 
'•Minnesota Pioneer," issued at St. Paul, April 28th, 1849, There now 
is scarcely a county in the State, in which there is not at least one 
paper published, and many have more. The average country papers 
of this State, are well gotten up, of good size and fairly edited, and 
hold a very respectable rank in the tone of their morality and intel- 
ligence, while we have several great newspapers in the State which 
may take rank with the best metropolitan journals and of which the 
people are, or should be, quite proud. 

We have already seen that the first paper published in this 
county, was the Blue Earth City Xews, the first number of which 
was dated April Gth, 1861. 

For several years there was but one paper in the county, but 
for the last few years there have been four, and at one time as many 
as seven papers published in the county. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 173 

Many changes have occurred in the newspaper press of this 
county since the publication of the first paper, all of which are care- 
fully noted in the various years of this volume to the close of 1879. 
Our papers have in the main, always been equal to the best average 
of county newspapers. It is a fact worthy of record, that our county 
has supported a larger number of papers, in proportion to its popu- 
lation, than perhaps any other county in the State. The people of 
the county have always been a newspaper reading people. Many 
of them take all the papers published in the county, besides outside 
papers. All of the great leading journals are taken, and many of 
the leading monthlies and quarterlies, even the most costly of them, 
are patronized by the people. 

For many years, all of our local papers have been printed on 
the auxiliary plan, that is, one side of them, containing general 
news and other matter is printed at the large offices of some of the 
cities, and the other side containing the local news, editorials and 
advertisements, is printed at the office of issue. This method, now 
almost universally adopted throughout the country, has many ad- 
vantages. It enables the proprietor to publish a paper more easily 
and cheaply, and make a better paper, as the general news and se- 
lections are made by more skillful hands, as a rule, and from a greater 
range of exchanges, and this work being off the editor's hands, he 
has more time to devote to local matters. However, all the advan- 
tages are not with this system. 

And now speaking of newspapers generally, we find that as to 
form, style and size, they vary greatly. The great majority are four 
Ijages, the next in order are the eight page papers and there are 
some of sixteen pages and even some, properly called newspapers, 
of thirty- two pages, and some of the large sheets are ten columns 
in width. Our papers cover also a wide range in character and 
ability, from the Snakefang Gazette and the vile HeWs Messenger to 
the Public Ledger, (Penn.) and the great religious weeklies. The 
great majority of newspapers in this country are published in the 
English language, but there are papers published in many other 
languages, as the German, French, Spanish, Norwegian, etc. It is 
a great and beneficial feature, that a great number of the news- 
papers published are devoted to specialties, to science, art, occupa- 
tions, classes of society, associations, religious denominations, 
politics, commerce. Thus the man of science, every profession, the 
mechanic, the merchant, the agriculturist and others have each 
a pajier devoted to his particuliar interests and views, besides the 
journals, which treat of matters in general. 

One of the causes which contribute to the public influence of 
newspapers is a sort of anonymity, impersonality and know every- 
thing character, which attaches to them. This quality is something 



174 HISTOllY or 

separate from, or independent of. the personality of the editor. 
The expression, "the paper says so"' goes a great ways with many 
people. Yet the editor himself, may be a very ninny, or a chump, 
or worse, and even the editorials may be largely "scissored" from 
other papers. There are newspapers, the editorial columns of which 
are largely edited by the shears. 

The newspaper is a necessity. Let any one consider for a mo- 
ment the condition of things should all the papers, suddenly and at 
once, cease to be published. 

The newspaper is one of the great institutions of America, and 
the Americans are the greatest newspaper readers in the world, 
and the result is. they are the best informed people in the world, as 
to general topics and current events. 

The newspaper is one of the most powerful educators of the 
intelligence and conscience of the people, and exercises an influence 
on the every- day life, the deeds and destiny of the people of the 
gravest importance. While the school teacher instructs a few dozens, 
or hundreds, and the preacher reaches his congregation, the editor 
speaks to many hundreds, often many thousands. Napoleon said, 
"A journalist is a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations. For 
hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets." 

"Newspapers," said H. W. Beecher, "are the school mastei-s of 
the common people — a greater treasure to them than ^uncounted 
millions of gold." 

Wendell Phillips wrote. "What gunpowder did for wars, the 
pi'inting pi'ess has done for the mind; the statesman is no longer 
clad in the steel of special education, but every reading man is his 
judge." The famous Junius says. "Let it be impi'essed upon your 
minds, let it be instilled into your children, that the liberty of the 
pi-ess is the palladium of all the civil, political and religious rights." 
And it has long been a proverb that, "A free press is the stoutest 
bulwark of our liberties." 

The press is not only potent to instruct and lead to right action, 
but it is also powerful in deterring from and suppressing crime and 
vice. 

The business of Journalism has become a learned and honorable, 
almost a peerless profession, and the responsibility to the public, of 
those from the highest to the lowest, who are engaged in it. is 
very great. The position of the editor of even a country paper, who 
realizes his duty and i-esponsibilities to himself and the community. 
and seeks to i>erform them, in a high minded and honorable manner, 
is a most honorable and important position and such an editor is 
usually respected as one of the first men of the locality. 

A good local newspaper, one which is conducted on correct prin- 
cipals, by an independent, a consciencious and able man. is an ines- 



FARIBAULT GOUNTY, MINNESOTA. 175 

timable benefit to any community. There is hardly any one thing, 
which can effect so much, in moulding and directing public opinion, 
advancing the material prosperity and raising the moral and intel- 
lectual condition of a locality as this. But on the other hand no 
greater calamity can happen to a locality, than that of having pub- 
lished in its midst a newspaperreflectingthe qualifications of a nar- 
row-minded, self -suflicient, or conceited individual, who supposes him- 
self to be "the all in all" of the community, or one who is so weak, 
or so depraved, or both, as from week to week to criticise, decry, or 
misrepresent every moral movement and public enterprise, which 
does not square with his notions, or of which he is not placed at 
the head; or a paper which is a perpetual dispenser of "taffy" and 
fulsome adulation for the purpose of keeping friends; or the friend 
of the vicious elements and the ready apologist of crimes and dis- 
order; or the mouth piece of defamation and blackmail and a manace 
to the good name or reputation of every person in the community, 
who will not bend the knee, or pay the price of immunity from ridi- 
cule or libel; or a paper that is purchasable and ready and anxious 
to sell its support for a price, to any man or cause; or one which is 
pleased to pander to the curiosity of the vulgar, or is the tool of 
small beer politicians and self-seekers, who, for a consideration, may 
write their own puffs. From all such, or any combination therof, 
good Lord deliver us. 

There are such papers and probably always will be. They are 
like a cancer on the public body, and unless soon cut out, corrupt 
and destroy the whole community. 

The way to have an able and high-toned press, is to demand 
such, and patronize only such, and the way to get rid of the other 
sort, is to stick the pajier in the fire, pay the editor what is due him, 
if anything, and stop your patronage. 

It is a grateful task to record the fact, that with but a few ex- 
ceptions, the publishers of newspapers in this county, whatever the 
private character or conduct of anyone may have been, seemed to 
realize their obligations to the community, and if not active in every 
good work, isromoting intelligence and morality, have done nothing 
to hinder their progress. 

Among the many varieties of newspapers, there is a class 
which no man should ever read himself, or permit in his family, if 
he has one. 

They are those illustrated journals, of the deeds of darkness 
current in the land, which relate in detail, the shames and crimes of 
greed and hate and lust, illustrating them with all their horrors and 
vulgar features. They not only familiarize the mind with crimes of 
every name, but teach their methods of procedure. Their influ- 
ence is pernicious. They are Satan's open letters to the people, as the 



176 HISTORY OF 

dime novels are his text books. No man wlio regards the welfare 
of the young, or the purity of his family, will permit them in his 
house. No one would want the company of the criminals and prof- 
ligates themselves, why then the pictures and stories of their devilish 
deeds. We get enough of them for the information of the people in 
the ordinary newspapers. It is indeed true in a very great measure, 
that what we read shapes our lives. No man in this enlightened 
age, can afford to be without at least one good paper. No one can 
afford to raise his children without the current information, given 
by newspapers, and the paper should be read by every member of 
the family, old enough to read. A home is not much of a home 
without a good newspaper, and every family which respects itself, 
will have its paper. Every man should take his home paper to 
learn the local news, and he should take a leading city journal 
of his State, and he should have a paper devoted to his special busi- 
ness, and he should get one of his church papers, and then to 
complete the list, if he has a family of children, he should get a 
child's paper for the little folks. All these papers together and all 
of the best quality, need not cost to exceed six or eight dollars per 
annum. As a linancial question it is the best little investment 
a man can- make, to say nothing of the greater benefits derived 
in the waj' of general information, correct principle and improve- 
ment of manners. There is much that can be said on, this splen- 
did subject of newspapers, but we close these observations by the 
statement that, the work of publishing a newspaper is a business 
transaction. But few papers are published wholly as matters of 
charity. 

Papers cannot live without support, and they ai'e generally good 
and useful, in proportion to the liberality of their support. A paper 
too, is generally a fair index of the enterprise and intelligence and 
moral sentiment of the community where iiublished. 

Every man should not only take at least his local paper and pay 
for it, but if he does any business that is respectable and worth do- 
ing, he should advertise and pay for that. If he wants patronage, 
people must know where he is, what he does or has to offer, and if 
he advertises, the paper tells these things to hundreds, perhaps 
thousands while he works, or eats or sleeps. It is a fact generally 
true, that the man who advertises is the man who does the business. 
It may be observed that the business of publishing a newspaper, ex- 
cept in the case of a few of the great city journals, is not a very 
money-making business. Many papers started in good faith, and 
capable of doing much good, fail every year. There is much truth 
couched in the following lines penned by a once famous Minnesota 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 



177 



editor who had started many papers which failed to live. He 

sadly wrote: 

"Man's a vapor 
Full of woes, 
Starts a paper, 
Up he goes." 

THE TALE TOLD BY THE TICKETS. 

The candidates for governor this fall were Stephen Miller, re- 
publican and H. R. Wells, democrat. 

The Republican District Convention was held at Blue Earth 
City October 22d, and nominated J. A. Latimer, of Winnebago City, 
for Representative. 

The Union Republican County Convention was also held at Blue 
Earth City and W. J. C. Robertson, of Verona, was nominated for 
sheriff; Wm. Dustin, of Blue Earth City, for treasurer; Andi-ew C. 
Dunn, of Winnebago City, for county attorney; D. Birdsall, of Pres- 
cott, for county surveyor; Amos Preston, of Elmora, for court com- 
missioner and Wm. A. Way, for coroner. 

The Democratic party made no nominations for legislative or 
county offices . 

The election occurred on the third day of November. The vote 
was exceedingly light and the Republican candidates were all 
elected. 

The following was the official canvass of votes : 



Prescott • 

Guthrie 

Elmore and Campbell 

Winnebago City 

Lura, Marples and Dunbar 

Brush Creek and Foster 

Barber, Walnut Lake and Cobb 
Blue Earth City and Emerald. . 

Seely and Keister 

Verona 

Totals 











d 








b 

n 


« 


a 


a 




a 


d 
o 




i 


'a3 


l-f 




O 


a 

3 


0) 




19 




18 


18 


18 


18 


18 


18 


33 


1 


27 


31 


29 


27 


31 


30 


23 




23 


23 


23 


22 


19 


16 


80 


1 


67 


73 


72 


65 


72 


73 


30 




U 


11 


11 


10 


11 


11 


16 


2 


15 


15 


15 


15 


15 


15 


11 


14 


11 


11 


U 


11 


11 


11 


68 


4 


46 


53 


52 


52 


52 


52 


12 




11 


12 


n 


11 


12 


12 


37 


.... 


26 


27 


29 


27 


29 


29 


309 


22 


255 


274 


271 


258 


270 


267 . 



18 
29 
22 
72 
11 
15 
11 
48 
11 
28 

265 



Note — It appears that there was no election held in Pilot Grove 
and Jo Daviess. 

Allen Shultis and Wm. M. Scott were elected county commis- 
sioners. 

The prices of farm products late in December ruled as follows: 
Wheat, 60 to 95 cents per bushel; oats, 45 to 50 cents; barley, 75 
cents; corn, 50 cents; potatoes, 30 cents; onions, $1.50; beans, $1.50; 



178 HISTORY <>F 

butter. 15 cents; fresh pork. 4 J; fresh beef, 3A; eggs, 15 cents per 
dozen. 

HOUNTIES. 

Another call having been made on the 17th of October for three 
hundred thousand men and a draft having been ordered to take place 
on the 5th day of January. 18G4. the commissioners met in special 
session December 11th, to consider the situation. They appointed 
Andrew C. Dunn as the special agent of the county, to proceed to 
St. Paul to get the returns of recruits enlisted from this county in 
the United States service corrected, so as to give this county and each 
town thereof, the proper credit for all recruits furnished since the 
beginning of the war. Then to encourage enlistments, and thus pre- 
vent drafting as much as possible, the following resolution was 
adopted: 

"Resolved that the sum of fifty dollars as a bounty to each volunteer or re- 
cruit, in each township in this county, who shall, subseiiuent to the recent call 
for the three hundred thousand iiieD, and prior to .January ."nh, next, be mus- 
tered into the military service of the United States." 

LIFE HERE. 

One may easily realize the conditions here and the life and 
interests of the people during the spring, summer and fall of this 
year. 

Extremely drj' weather prevailed for months. TheVe was great 
heat in the summer and the dust was deep on all the roads and great 
clouds of dust filled the air when the winds blew or when teams or 
droves of stock passed along the highways or the public streets. 

The lakes and streams were nearly dry and the pastures nearly, 
or quite, dried out and dead. The subjects that engaged the atten- 
tion of every one. at home or abroad, in the fields, or in the work- 
shops, or in public assemblies, were the impending draft, the battles 
fought and the great victories won on land and sea. and the losses in 
killed or wounded. And there was great rejoicing over the successes, 
and great sori'owing as well, sometimes bitter indignation at the 
losses and failures. And there was much activity in recruiting, en- 
listing and mustering into the service throughout the country. And 
during all this time money was scarce and dry goods and groceries 
so high-priced that nothing was bought by the people that could be 
dispensed with. Old clothing was long worn, often made over, and 
the people tried to live as much within themselves as possible. They 
practiced the most rigid economy. During these times, too, the peo- 
ple were bearing a special burden of anxiety about those at the front, 
in the far south and on the Indian frontier in the northwest, and about 
the outcome of the war. There were then but two villages and but 
few post-offices, no railroads and no telegraphs in the county. The 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 179 

mails were carried by stages. The principal mails came from Man- 
kato. The post-offices in the villages especially, were thronged 
with people when the mails arrived, all eager for letters and papers. 
Women and children often came long distances on horseback or ou 
foot in haste to get their mails. How eagerly the papers were un- 
folded and the news of the great battles, and especially the list of 
the wounded and killed, were read to the groups of hearers. And 
the letters, how quickly they were torn open and their contents 
scanned, sometimes bringing good news, while others and not a few, 
told the sad stories of terrible wounds received, or the death of 
father, son, brother or friend, met bravely on the hard-fought field, 
and the moan of, deep anguish was heard from the heart of the 
stricken reader. And such sad scenes were not seldom. God for- 
bid that we shall ever see them again. Yet for all the unfavorable 
conditions under which the people suffered, the sentiment of all still 
was, "On to the front,'" "Down with the merciless savage, down with 
the accursed rebellion. " 

AT THE FRONT. 

This year was one of great national events — of even greater ac- 
tivity than the preceding year in military affairs, on land and sea. 
Many great victories crowned the Union arms. 

We can mention but a few of the more important events of the 
year. 

The Emancipation Proclamation issued January 1st, has al- 
ready been referred to. January 17th the government issued 
f 100,000.000 in notes, to pay the army. March 3d. congress author- 
ized the borrowing of $900,000,000, on the credit of the government, 
and the issue of $50,000,000, in fractional currency. 

Daring the month of April no less than eighty-five battles, skir- 
mishes and attacks took place, on land and water. May 1st, battle 
of Port Gibson and battle of Chancellorsville begun. May 16th, battle 
of Baker's Creek, Miss. June 15th, the President called for 120.000 
militia to repel Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania. June 18th, 100.000 
Confederates entered Pennsylvania near Cliambersburg. The 
first days of July formed the crisis of the war. On the 1st, 
2d and 8d of July occurred the great battle of Gettysburg, Pa., 
which was one of the greatest of the civil war. July 4th, Vicks- 
burg, Miss., surrendered with 31,000 men, 220 guns and 70,000 
small arms. July 8th, Port Hudson sun'endered. July 13th, 
great riot in New York City, lasting several days, during which 
the colored orphan asylum was burned, negroes hung in the streets 
and houses robbed and burned by the rioters. The riot was quelled 
by government troops. Aug. 1st, two cavalry fights in Virginia. 
Aug. 20th. Lawrence, Kan., attacked and destroyed by the guerillas. 



180 HISTORY OF 

Sept. 19 20Ui, battle of Chickamauga. Oct. 14th, battle Bristoe 
Station, Va. Oct. 31st, battle Shell Mound. Nov. 23d, great battles 
of Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, lasting three days. 

THE LAST DAY. 

The last day of this year was one of the most terrible ever known 
in this region. A great tempest of wind with intense cold prevailed 
on the last day of the year and for several days of the next year, 
over the whole country. Even in southern latitudes the cold was 
very severe. At St. Louis, Mo., and Louisville, Ky., the mercury 
sank to 24° below zero. In this county the wind blew a hurricane 
all day, the thermometer standing at 30" to 34° below zero. The air 
was tilled with fine particles of ice so thickly and was driven with 
such velocity that objects ten feet distant could not be seen, and it 
was almost impossible to face the wind. Night fell upon the earth, 
the storm unabated and thus closed the year 1863. 

"T'is donel Dread winter spreads his latest glooms, 
And reigns tremendous o'er the conquered year. 
» * * Horror wide extends 
His desolate domain."'— T/tonwon. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 181 



CHAPTER X. 

A. D. 186i. 

The great storm and intense cold, with wliich the preceding 
year closed, continued during the first day of this year and for sev- 
eral days after, but were less severe than on the first day. We find 
the following notice of the storm in the Wliici of January 6th : 

"A storm of more than usual severity passed over this region last weelc. 
People who have been raised in this climate say they have never seen anything 
to equal the fierce blasts, wind, frost and snow combined. On Wednesday the 
wind blew fierce gales from the northwest, the air being filled with falling and 
drifting snow, increasing the terrors of the scene during the night. On Thurs- 
day and the night following, until about midnight, the storm had been rallying 
to its climax, and then gradually subsided, but on Friday morning the degree 
of cold was marked by the thermometer at 33° below zero. 

The soldiers of the expedition to Sioux City arrived in the neighborhood on 
the return in time to secure quarters at Fairmont and this place. They had 
suffered on their way out during a severe storm, and a young man named James 
Huntington, son of Col. Hallam Huntington, of this town, had a foot badly 
frozen, and was left at Sioux City. 

Twenty-three others of the party are said to have been disabled from the 
same cause. As yet we have no names. 

The weather of the past week surpasses the experience of the 'oldest in- 
habitant.' " 

It was estimated at the time that about three thousand dollars 
worth of stock, principally cattle and sheep, perished in this storm, 
in this county alone. Many people were more or less frozen and 
some were frozen to death in the counties west of this. The weather 
continued cold and rather stormy and wet, with some short excep- 
tions, in February and March, until the middle of April. Some 
wheat was sown about the twenty-fifth of March, but the greater 
part of it was sown during the third and fourth weeks of April, yet 
the weather even then was quite cold and blustery. It cleared up 
about the last day of the month, and became very warm and dry 
until the twenty-second day of May, when a terrific storm of wind, 
rain and hail prevailed over a large part of the county. During the 
remainder of the year, until late in December, when the winter 
began, the weather was very agreeable. This may be designated 
as another dry year. 

"THE BOARD." 

Among the events which confront us at the opening of the year 
was the meeting of the county board, which occurred January 5th 



182 HISTORY OF 

Thomas Blair was elected chairman for the year. The board met 
again Januai-y 27th, February 10th, May 27ih and July 8th. But 
little was done at these meetings worthy of note, and that little is 
mentioned elsewhere in this work. Several meetings were held 
later in the year which will be noticed hereafter. 

THE LEGISLATURE. 

The sixth legislature met January 5th and adjourned March 
4th. The legislature of the preceding year almost ignored this 
county, and that of 1804, did it quite, as no act whatever, was passed, 
having any particular relation to this county. Happy county! How- 
ever, there was some talk about this time, of an effort being made 
to change certain of the bouudarj' lines of the county, but it came 
to naught. D. G. Shillock, in the Senate and J. A. Latimer in the 
House, were our representatives in the legislature of 1864. An- 
drew C. Dunn, of this county, was chief clerk of the House of 
Representatives. 

MORE MEN. 

On the 1st day of February, the President ordered a draft of 
five hundred thousand men, and on the 15th of March he called for 
two hundred thousand more, which made the business of recruiting 
in this county, as elsewhere, quite lively, and almost monopolized the 
public attention. In the Whif) of March 23d, we find tlw following 
table showing the quotas of men required up to that time to be furn- 
ished by the several town districts in this county, and the number 
credited to each. It is of interest at this late day, but was of more 
interest at that time. 

Quota. Credits. 

Blue Earth City 42 6e 

Brush Creek 11 10 

Elmore 12 16 

Guthrie, (Dalavan) 15 17 

Marplt'ss, (Minnesota Lake) 14 6 

Pilot Grove VZ 13 

Prescott 12 24 

Seely 3 3 

Verona 2S 27 

WalnutLake 12 II 

Win neliagd Ci ty 37 53 

198 246 

It will be observed that while several town districts only wei'e 
slightly in arrears, yet the county, as a whole, was much ahead of 
the requisitions. 

ST. VALENTINE'S DAY— FEBRUARY FOURTEENTH. 

St. Valentine's Day is one of the important days of the year with 
the young folks in many countries, and has always been remembered 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 183 

by them, and its curious custom of sending valentines observed to a 
greater or lesser extent every year in this county, and the day, 
therefore, demands, of course, a passing notice. 

St. Valentine was a Roman martyr, who was beheaded in the 
year 270, at Rome, in the reign of the Pagan Emperor Claudius I. 
He was a man of great ability, a christian, and famous for his love 
of his fellow-man, and his unbounded charity for all. 

Some writers say he was a bishop, others that he was but a pres- 
byter or priest. He was early canonized, and ever since, the four- 
teenth day of February has been known, in the church calendar, as 
St. Valentine's Day. But the peculiar customs incident to this day, 
had their origin long before St. Valentine lived, and can be traced 
back among the Romans to a period two thousand years ago. There 
existed among the Romans at that time, the pagan festival of the 
Lupercalia, which was held in February, and about the time when 
birds in that country were choosing their mates. It was the custom 
at the time of the festival and a ceremony in the worship of Juno, a 
heathen goddess, to place the names of young women in a box, when 
after being well shaken, they were drawn out at random by the young 
men, and the one whose name was drawn, was, as we should now say, 
the valentine of the drawer for one year. 

Later, during the times of the early church, the pastors finding 
this heathen custom so deeply rooted that it could not be eradicated, 
changed its form somewhat and connected it with the observances of 
St. Valentine's Day. Further changes followed in the course of 
years, until the sending of written or printed missives, called valen- 
tines, as we now have them, came in vogue, and has continued during 
a long course of years. The writer is indebted to various authori- 
ties for the historical facts above set forth. These missives were de- 
signed originally to be short messages of love, f rendship, tokens of 
regard, and are generally anonymous — the sender being unknown — 
and they are sent by the young women as well as by the young men. 
A poet writes: 

•'Girls should be modest they say; 
Still, on St. Valentine's Day 
I suppose a young maid may 

Offer a tiny bouquet 
And not wander far estray 
From perfection. 

"Only a leaf and a pink, 

Surely at that one may wink, 
I am still safe on the brink, 

Since I have not said, I think, 
That you are yourself the pink 
Of perfection." 



184 HISTORY OF 

But at this day valentines are often sent and received by the 
older folks as well as by the young. 

Many years ago, in England, a custom connected with this day 
prevailed extensively, and for a long time, and which may be related 
here for the amusement of the young folks. According to this prac- 
tice each maiden was to regard as her valentine the first lad on whom 
her eyes rested on St. Valentine's Day. Hence on that day the boys 
were up early and dressed out in their very best clothes and went to 
call at the residence of the girl whom they wished to be their valen- 
tine, and many cunning devices were used by the young people to see 
or be seen by the right person first, the girls trying to avoid being 
seen by any other but the young man of her choice, and he using 
his best skill in trying to be seen by the young lady of his choice 
first, and by no one else until after this momentous question was 
determined, and a great deal of innocent sport was the result of all 
this maneuvering. 

The missives now called valentines are usually made of small 
sheets of paper, in various styles, sometimes in the form of cards, 
letters, pictures, boxes, and contain verses, printed or written, with 
portraits and pictures of vai'ious objects, usually flowers, caricatures 
and the like. Some are made up in silk or satin in various shapes. 
Very costly valentines are to be had in the cities, ranging in price 
from ten dollars to one hundred dollars. They are jnade in all 
grades, down to the penny daub. The shop windows in the smaller 
towns are usually full of the cheaper kinds for a week or two before 
St. Valentine's Day and attract a good deal of attention. Some are 
sentimental, some comic and occasionally some are even vulgar. 
Valentines are usually sent, dulj^ enveloped, postage prepaid, through 
the post-offices, and for a week or two before and after St. Valentine's 
Day, the post-offices are overloaded with this kind of matter, to be 
sent in every direction. 

And when these little missives are sent and i-eceived, and are 
of a proper character, much pleasure is enjoyed by those who take 
an interest in them. 

But sometimes this custom, like many others, is abused, and ill- 
conditioned, vulgar or malicious.people make use of it to injure the 
feelings of others, or bring them into ridicule. Comic valentines 
are perhaps more used at this day than any others, and create much 
sport when no malice is involved. 

Valentines are used sometimes to remind peojile of various 
things, and sometimes with not much propriety, yet occasionally with 
some benefit. For instance, an individual whom fortune has favored, 
may perhaps be disposed to "put on airs" and make himself very 
disagreeable to his neighbors, and someone who thinks he should 
be rebuked by being reminded of something, but does not wish to 



FAIUBAVLT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 185 

say to him that his father was a city collector— that is, a collector of 
soap grease— sends him an anonymous valentine containing, perhaps, 
some suitable verse and a highly colored portrait of an old man 
■with his greasy cart and barrels and scare crow of a horse. Spil- 
kins may know that old Soaker is an arrant drunkard, but don't 
wish to say so to his back, so he sends him a valentine representing 
a man with an enormous and very red nose and an empty whisky 
jug. Such valentines usually do much more harm than good and 
should not be indulged in. 

Used as an amusement, or for purposes of friendship or affec- 
tion, and within the bounds, always, of propriety, these customs of 
St. Valentine's Day may be made a source of benefit and of much 
innocent pleasure, and may certainly be commended. But on the 
other hand, any one should be severely censured, who should so far 
degrade himself as to be guilty of wounding the sensibilities of 
others, making sport of their misfortunes, or gratifying his malice 
at their expense 

THE NEWSPAPERS. 

About the ninth of March, J. L. Christie, formerly of the Minne- 
sotian, at Blue Earth City, purchased the Whic/ at Winnebago City. 
Mr. Christie, in his first issue, very wisely says, among other things, 
that '"A paper, properly conducted, can do much toward attracting 
immigration, and no pains will be spared to make the paper what it 
should be in this respect. The editorial department will be under 
the charge of H. W. HoUey." 

On the 29th of the same month, the first number of the Blue 
Earth City Advocate was issued at Blue Earth City, by Carr Hunt- 
ington, editor. It was a six column, four page sheet, and made a 
very creditable appearance — motto "Freedom (?) and Union now 
and forever." 

The editor says: ''The paper will stand square for the Union, and 
the men in every capacity who are engaged in the work of its preservation." 

In April, the name of the paper — the Whigot'lQ — at Winnebago 
City, was dropped, and the paper appeared under the very — proper 
head 

"THE FREE HOMESTEAD." 

The former editorial management continued. Of the new name 
the editor writes: "Located as we are in the very midst of free 
homesteads, which the government has given, or will give for the 
asking to the actual settler, it seems to us appropriate to identify 
our paper in name with these homesteads, as we intend it shall al- 
ways be identified with them in interest." Having now got our 
county papers — now two of them — squarely before the public and at 
work, as they remained for several years, we shall pass to other 
topics. 



186 nisToiiY or 

WIND MILLS. 

In writing this sub heading immediately after the remarks on 
newspapers, tliere is no implied design of continuing our observa- 
tions on that subject, but to state that in the early part of the year 
an enterprise was inaugurated at Blue Earth City, looking to the 
erection of a grist mill at that place. At that time there was but 
one grist mill in the county, and that but a small one, located at 
Winnebago City, and the majority of those who desired milling 
done carried their grists twenty, thirty and even forty miles to mill. 
This was a great inconvenience and quite expensive, and the people 
of Blue Earth City concluded that no enterprise would be of more 
advantage to the village and the surrounding country than the 
building of a grist mill. 

After the expenditure of enough wind in talking over the mat- 
ter to run three ordinary wind mills, a number of meetings were 
held, and it was determined to erect a wind grist mill. On the sec- 
ond day of April a joint stock company was formed under the 
incorporation laws of the State. The officei's went manfully to work, 
and after the timbers were gotten out and some of the machinery 
purchased, the company sold out to private individuals who com- 
pleted and put the mill in oi^eration. It was not a great success, yet 
it proved quite a convenience and of considerable public advan- 
tage for some time. And this was the second grist 'mill in the 
county. The water power mills, of which we now have a goodly 
number, were next, and later "evolved," and these milling facilities 
were increased still later by the addition of first-class steam grist 
mills. 

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY MATTERS. 

The agricultural society held a meeting at Winnebago City, 
March 26th. at which a new constitution and bylaws were adopted. 
It appears that another meeting — the regular quarterly meeting — was 
held at Blue Earth City April 4th, at which, also, a constitution and 
by laws were adopted, but whether the same as those adopted in 
March, does not appear — presumably they were. This meeting ad- 
journed to May 16th, at the county auditor's office, for the election 
of officers. The adjourned meeting was held, and J. A. Latimer was 
re-elected president, D. Birdsall, secretary and A. Bonwell, treas- 
urer, for the current year. Another meeting was held June 25th, 
when it was determined to hold the fair at Winnebago City on the 
14lh and 15th of September, but the time was subsequently changed 
to the 23d and 24th of September. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 187 

FIRST INSURANCE AGENCY. 

As a matter of interest to the insurance fraternity, it may be 
recorded here, that in April of this year, the first i)ermananl insur- 
ance agency was established in this county — one which still continues 
after a lapse of sixteen years. The agency was established at Blue 
Earth City by the old ^Etna Insui-ance Company, of Hartford, Conn. 
J. A. Kiester was appointed agent. 

In the next month. May, the Madison Mutual Insurance Company, 
of Madison, Wisconsin, appointed an agent in the town of Verona 
— A. B. Balcom — but this agencj' did not continue a great while. 

At this time many different companies have agencies in this 
county, among which are found many of the oldest and strongest 
companies of America and Europe. 

The business of underwriting, in its higher departments, is a 
learned and honorable profession. Insurance is a science, having 
an important history and literature. Many of the periodical and 
weekly publications, devoted to this science, are of a high order. 
As a business, its transactions are second only to those of the great 
railroading interests of the country. The vocation of an insurance 
agent is an important and honorable one. It is upon the agents of 
the companies that the great business of insurance rests, and is de- 
pendent for success, and insurance agents, as a class of business 
men, are as honorable, correct in the transaction of their business, 
and as trustworthy as the members of any other profess ion or oc- 
cupation; yet, as in other departments of business, there are some 
who dishonor the profession, and the companies should be, in fact 
generally are, ever ready to weed out such employees when dis- 
covered. 

oyer! oyer! oyer! 

The district court held a session of one day, at the usual time 
in May. This was the last term in this county at which the Hon. 
Lewis Branson presided, his term of office expiring January 1st 
following. He had presided at all our courts from the first organi- 
zation of the county to this time. A number of distinguished law- 
yers from abroad were present at this term, among whom was Hon. 
C. G. Ripley, afterwards chief justice of our supreme court. 

A COURT CRIER. 

A lawyer, living on Walnut Hills, has a son about seven years old, and a 
daughter about three times that age. The boy has been around the court room 
a good deal, and the girl has a solid beau. The other evening the gentleman 
passed the house, and the young lady wanted to see him. 

"Johnny," said she to the kid: "won't you please call Mr. Mann." 

Johnny knew the state of affairs, and with a ready "of course," he flew to 
the front door and called out in the usual loud monotone of a crier: 

"John Henry Mann, John Henry Mann, John Henry Mann, come into 
court." 

Mr. Mann came in, and Johnny withdrew to a safe place. 



188 HISTORY (iF 



SETTLING UP THE COUNTRY. 



Immigration this year commenced in May and continued all 
summer, at high rate. A great deal of land was taken up, many 
farms opened and many buildings erected. Money became ([uite 
plenty and lands and grain brouglit good jjrices. This year was in 
fact, one of the great years of immigration and improvement in this 
county. In a new country few things are, so encouraging and bene- 
ficial as a large immigration. People and improvements are the 
chief requisites to make a country, and the Americans are the great- 
est country and state makers in the world. It is said that the Am- 
ericans are nomadic. This is true in a limited sense in the west, and 
while the old saying that "a rolling stone gathers no moss" is quite 
true, thousands of people are greatly benefited by a change of loca- 
tion, if they do not change too often. It was about this time that 
the homestead law. passed in 1862 by congress, began to have its 
effect, inducing a vast emigration for years to the new states and 
territories. Our county was not only the recipient of much immi- 
gration, but it was also the highway over which passed much of the 
immigration to the southwestern and northwestern counties of the 
State. The long lines of white covered wagons often called "prairie 
schooners" and droves of stock, passing through to the north and 
west, were for many years a common and an interesting sight, even 
though they did not stop with us. The day will come flrhen they 
shall be onlj* a thing of the past, and even now are less frequently 
seen than formerly. What western man can fail to feel an interest in 
the emigrant as he passes along in his covered wagon now his only 
home on earth? Generally there are tired looking teams, tired 
looking men and women, tired and hungry children, and the plod- 
ding stock following, all toiling along over the prairies, through 
forests, over the mountains, weary and dusty, but still patient, en- 
during, persevering until the Eldorado is at last reached. The 
heart involuntarily utters "God bless you stranger, may He pros- 
per your venture. It was thus most of our people came to this new 
land. It is thus great states are built. It is a venture with the emi- 
grant, it is always a venture, and we, the early settlers all well know 
what it implies. The old home far behind perhaps beyond the sea. 
forever deserted, old and dear social and Icindred ties and associa- 
tions of all the by-gone years forever broken, the toilsome journey, 
the land of strangers, the building of the new home, the establish- 
ment of business, the making of new friends and the beginning of a 
new life. The newcomer and the way-faring emigrant, is indeed 
entitled to the kindly greeting, the helping hand, if needed, and 
generous encouragement, of whatever name or nation, tongue, or 
kindred, he may be. 



FAIilBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 189 

SEE HEREl 

About the last of May a fair and festival was held at Winnebago 
City by the Ladies' Soldiers Aid Society for the benefit of sick and 
disabled soldiers at the front. It was a grand success in every re- 
spect. The people were enthusiastic and everyone contributed lib- 
erally to the good cause. The amount realized from the fair and 
and festival, together with some additional sums afterwards con- 
tributed was the handsome donation of .^456.47. On the first day of 
June a like fair and festival was held at Blue Earth City by the 
Ladies' Soldiers Aid Society of that place. Notwithstanding the 
many enlistments, the large town and county bounties and other aid 
extended to the soldiers, the people were not weary. At Blue 
Earth City on this occasion a large concourse of citizens full of 
patriotism and liberality attended. They assembled at Young's 
Hall about 11 o'clock in the forenoon, where an address was deliv- 
ered by J. A. Kiester. 

After alluding to and briefly explaining the monarchal theories 
and systems of government, which had ruled the world through all 
the ages, and the results, and after explaining the new and better 
principles of civil government, asserted by the Declaration of Amer- 
ican Independence, the speaker said, among other things: — 

"But the American Revolution produced a change in the affairs of man — 
light broke in upon, and hope dawned for the down-trodden and oppressed 
millions of the earth. Those new and better and truer principles asserted by 
that revolution, recognizes man as a being of rights and of equal rights. And 
these better principles are becoming recognized. Mankind are progressing in 
knowledge everywhere, and in the knowledge of the true principles of political 
science. The shackles of the old despotic systems are slowly but surely loosen- 
ing — they must loosen as the mass of the people progress, or be burst assunder 
in bloody revolutions overturning all government and order. The despots of the 
old world already see, and to some extent admit this truth. The glorious car 
of human freedom is rolling forward. It is but a short time since the perjured 
villain and despot who rules France, in a call for a European Congress, stated 
that this progress of the people must be recognized. The English people are 
becoming more jealous of their civil liberties — Russia has freed her millions of 
serfs— Poland and Hungary are in revolution— and classic Italy, under the 
leadership of Victor Emanuel and that glorious patriot, Garibaldi, has risen 
from her divisions and degradations of ages to an honorable position among 
the nations with the glad shout of free and united Italy. Thus are those prin- 
ciples asserted by our revolution becoming recognized — thus is mankind pro- 
grossing in the pathway of true advancement and elevation, and may this 
progress in the true principles of government, hand in hand with that in 
science, art, literature and religion, move forward without let or hindrance, 
until every system of slavery, wrong and oppression with despots, and their 
systems, thrones, sceptres and minions shall be swept from the earth forever. 

And now let us revert to our own country and its great interests, its condi- 
tion and destiny. Eighty odd years have passed away since, through the Are 
and blood and storms of the revolution, our government was organized upon 
the principles asserted by that revolution— what is the result? Let us view it 



190 Hisronv of 

for one iinvturii I a> ilfxistcfi before thu breaking nut (if tin' robcilioti. This 
people, who, at thetiaii' of the Iieclaration of IniifpiTidence, consisted of thir- 
teen colonies and tlirei' million of inhal)itants. without commerce, without a 
name and witliout a place amun^r tlie nations— had K'rown to be a mijihty peo- 
ple, composed of thirty-four states, and luvrv than thirty million iohaiiitants. 
We had tal<en our ])lace asa llrst-class power of the earth. Our empire was 
almost a continent. We had a country possessing every variety of soil, every 
character of climate and all kinds of productions. We had thousands of miles 
of sea coast, the longest rivers, railroads and canals in the world, a commerce 
that spread its sails on every sea, and manufactories of every description. Our 
people were industrious, intelligent, enterprising and brave. Hut this is not 
all— in the higher blessings of free governmentthe universal dilTusion of l<nowl- 
edge, progress in the arts and sciences, the freedom of conscience, of opinion, of 
speech, and of the press— in all these we had no equal on earth. In short, we 
had the most free, most tolerant, and best government ever possessed by man. 
And now drawing aside the thick veil which hides the future destinies of 
our country, let us contemplate it an hundred years hence, in the spirit and 
faith of the patriot's hope. Behold: A nation of more than two hundred mil- 
lions of people, whose states indissolubly united embrace the area of a conti- 
nent, whose lands are in the highest state (jf cultivation and productiveness, 
whose manufactures supjily the world — whose commerce covers every sea, whose 
arts and sciences are carried to the highest perfection— the precepts of moral- 
ity and religion governing its people— having no entangling alliances with for- 
eign nations, but the just arbiter of their ditlerences— a nation whose schools 
are free, and the benefits of an enlarged physical and mental education and de- 
velopment, possessed by every citizen — where all classes, castes, and distinc- 
tions, except such as are based upon virtue and wisdom, are unknown in the 
social and political systems— where the widest freedom of speectf, of opinion 
of the press, of conscience and of personal action, consistent with the well-be- 
ing of society, are indisputable rights. 

What a nation of prosperity, power and glory is this! This nation at the 
breaking out of the rebellion was a subject of pride and congratulation, but how 
much more worthy of pride is that nation which we may hope to become in the 
future!- And to me that future is no Utopian dream- no unreasonable hope. 
But there is a condition necos.sary to the maintenance of our country as it is or 
was— a condition necessary to be fulfilled, in the consummation of the future we 
hope for. And what is this condition? I answer, </ic muintemtncc of the Union, 
the Constitution and the Siipranacy of the Laivs. This is the simple, fundamental 
condition. And if we fail in this, we may now hid adieu to our liberties, to our 
wealth, power, prosperity and future prospects as a nation. The blood of our 
fathers will have been shed in vain, and the last and only hope of the political 
elevation of man will have perished, and on the broken columns of our ruins, 
the future moralizer on the destiny of nations, may write the sad but then 
truthful commentary— 

"—Such is the moral of all earthly tales, 

'Tis but the sad rehersal of the past: 

First Freedom, then glory, and when that fails. 

Slavery, corruption and barbarism at last, 

And history with all its volumes vast. 

Has but this page." 

Alas my countrymen! the black tlag of treason, rebellion and disunion has 
been thrown to the breeze. Led on by traitors whose treason is as black as hell 
because of its ingratitude and want of excuse, the deluded people of the South, 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 191 

lifting their bloodstained hands to heaven, swear to dissolve the Union, over- 
turn the nation, defeat and destroy our just and equitable system of govern- 
ment and establish one upon the basis of slavery. Shall this be soy Shall the 
Union and the Constitution be maintained? Let us reason for a moment, then 
to the men who are defending them with their lives. 

The American Union should be a holy thing to us. "It was baptized some 
eighty years ago, in a river of sacred blood. For that Union thousands of brave 
men left their homes, their wives, all that man holds dear, to die amid ice and 
snow, the shock of battle, the dishonor of gibbets. No one can count the tears, 
the prayers, the lives that have sanctified this American Union, making it an 
eternal bond of brotherhood for innumerable millions, an altar forever sacred 
to the rights of man. And for eighty years and more the smile of God has 
beamed upon it." 

"And the man that for any pretence would lay a finger upon one of its 
pillars, not only blasphemes the memory of the dead, but invokes upon his 
memory the curse of all ages yet to come. I care not how plausable his argu- 
ment, how swelling his sounding periods, that man is a traitor to the soil that 
bore him, a traitor to the mother whose breast gave him nourishment, a traitor 
to humanity everywhere, and a traitor to the dead whose very graves abhor the 
pollution of his footsteps."' 

There is, my countrymen, no light in which you can view this qu(!Stion, no 
possible hypothesis upon which to base a probable condition consistent with 
the liberties, material and other prosperity of this people, if we should fail to 
crush this rebellion. There is nothing left but to maintain the Union, the 
Constitution and the Laws, whatever the time and treasure and life it may 
cost. And to accomplish it, is worth the lives of one generation of men, yours, 
my hearers, and mine among the number, and all the wealth of this continent, 
for it is not the cause of this country alone, nor of this generation, but of all 
mankind and of all the generations to come. 

And here thi.s question of slavery presents itself. But I will not try your 
patience by a long hfimily upon this subject. Let me tell you in a few words the 
character of this most accursed institution and the fate that awaits it as I read 
the signs of the times. I look upon chattel slavery as it existed in this country as 
the greatest social, moral and political evil upon the face of the earth. It is 
the essence of all and every system of despotism. It is antagonistic to the 
principles upon which our government was founded. It is "the sum of all 
villainies." It is without warrant in revealed law, and is condemned by the law 
of nature, and there is absolutely no argument in the whole range of human 
reason, that can excuse, much less sustain it. 

And this great curse, this gigantic crime against man and God, the evils 
of which we are now reaping in this rebellion against the Union, against our 
laws and liberties — this evil, which, with its authors and apologists, men will 
execrate through all ages, is about to be destroyed as a result of this war for 
the Union. The Proclamation of Emancipation will besustained. The shackles 
are breaking and the oppressed shall go free, and when this war shall be ended 
and the Union restored, there may not be a slave on our soil, and the glad shout 
the mighty anthem of freedom shall resound throughout the universe— Glory 
be to God. 

Understand me friends, standing upon the law of God and nature, I am 
the friend of human freedom, of liberty, civil and religious, for all men every- 
where. I care not of what nation or color they may be, and I verily believe as 
I stand here to-day, that as in the dark day ot the revolution, the finger of God 
was everywhere manifest, so in this war is He evolving the great problem of 
human freedom, and that the restoration of the Union and the annihilation of 
slavery as a result of the war, are the ends He will accomplish. 



lOi! HISTOUY (IF 

Such, frionds, Is luy humble comprehension of the importance of this war 
for the Union— some of Its results and in the dim but certain future the glori- 
ous destinies of our country. And I have no fear for the result if we do our 
duty, and the only question now is, what is our duty as loyal citizensV It is 
very i)laiii, layinir aside all party prejudices and passions, creeds and mere per- 
sonal interests, we must stand by our povernniont with all our property, with 
the best exertions of our minds and bodies ei'en loi/o (?eaf/i. And hundreds of 
thousands of our noble countrymen have t^one forth determined to sustain the 
Rovernment. restore the I'nion and protect our liberties or perish in the at- 
tempt. God's best blessing be upon them. What a glorious cause like that for 
which our fathers toiled, the best for which man ever fought, or bled, or died. 

Hut we have not only the openly declared rebel and traitor to light — through- 
out the North there are many who sympathize with our enemies. There were 
such men in the days of the revoluti(»n, so in the war of 1812. They were called 
tories and traitors then— they are called copperheads now. And if 1 knew a 
more loathsome and repellant name, a name embodying all scorns and shames, 
1 would shout it in their ears until they would hide their deformed heads and 
principles from the light of day, and the gaze of all honest men. The traitor 
who opeuiy backs his treason with his life, may demand some respect for his 
courage and sincerity, but for the grovelling, sneaking, cowardly whelp of .Sa 
tan, who with his heart filled with the foulness of treason, his mouth with ly- 
ing words, seeks to liinder, distract and ruin the very government whose liber- 
ties, security and protection he enjoys, there are no words too bitter, no bate 
too strong this side of Hell. Admitting as we must, that there is some corrup- 
tion in the war, that there are many mistakes made, all of which is inevitable 
in any war, it is no reason whatever to give up the contest. But copperheads, 
with motives and feelings as evident as the designs of the devil upon the hu- 
man race, and with no view to temperate discussion and remedy at these evils, 
but to magnify and distort everything in the interestof their Southern friends, 
tell us the Constitution is violated every hour— that the President is a tyrant 
—that the government is wholly corrupt— that the country is ruined by debt— 
that Congress has no objects in its labors but base political and pecuniary end.s 
— that our generals are all Incompetent and mercenary— that this is a war 
against the rights of the South and should be given up— that it is an abolition 
war and a war for the benefit of speculators and rotten politicians, men who 
have no sympathy with our cause in Its failures, mistakes and misfortunes— 
not a word of praise in its victories and achievements, who tell us there is no 
patriotism in the men who are fighting its battles,— that their motives are all 
mercenary — GreatGodI Can this all be true"? Arc these men who have left their 
business, their wives and children, their peace and security and comfort, sacri- 
ficing every thing that men hold dear— are these men after all but mercenary 
wretches'? See them on the hundred battlellelds of this war, from the highest 
commander to the commonest soldier, toiling, suffering, bleeding, dying, facing 
the most appalling dangers, and as company, regiment and battalion are swept 
away by the murderous fire of the foe, still with the battle shout, cheer and 
song, fill up the thinned ranks, marching into the very jaws of death, deter- 
mined on victory. Is this mercenary'? Are these men thinking of bounties 
and thirteen dollars a month? See them lying strewn upon these hundred bat- 
tlefields, dead and silent, or in hospitals .sufTering from disease and ghastly 
wounds, still true to the holy cause- Is this mercenary? No, friends, this 
charge is a lie— a base born traitor's lie. There is patriotism in this war, estab- 
lished by the best proofs men have ever asked. The lives, the accursed machin- 
ations of these copperheads have cost, will be kept as a record of blood against 
them through all time, like the tories and traitors of the revolution and of the 
war of '12, they will be remembered but to be haled. 



FAUIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 193 

"Living, sliall forfeit fair renown, 
And doubly dying, shall go down 
To the vile dust from where they sprung 
Unwept, unhonored and unsung." 

Now what should be our course towards these cowardly miscreants? I will 
tell you in a word. Have no association or sympathy with them— put no man 
in office of doubtful patriotism, and be not deceived by specious assertions or 
changes of opinion. Let the past consistency of every man's conduct prove his 
sincerity, and give no ear to their falsehoods— they will cry out against this, 
and the worst pinched will be the first to howl, but remember the mighty trust 
reposed in every patriot's hands, and as you value the .success of our cause and 
country, heed them not — be true to your trust. 

And now to return to the brave men who are fighting our battles, and our 
duty to them and to our country, and I am done. They are fast falling in the 
mighty struggle— by the hardships and dangers of disease, and wounds, and 
death. Thousands of them will return to us no more in this world — they have 
fallen with their faces to the foe. Thousands are languishing in hospitals from 
sickness and wounds — other thousands are still bravely facing the storms of 
battle amid want and toil and suffering. Oh! what is our duty I What can we 
do who are yet surrounded by peace and plenty and ease'? I will say it— let us 
bury all party, all prejudice creeds and differences, and stand, as the struggle 
may grow fiercer and darker, more closely together, and when our time comes, 
as soon it may, let us go forth manfully to fill the thinned ranks, and while 
we remain here let us not be idle. Let us show our brave countrymen that 
we sympathize with them — that we appreciate their services. Yes, there is a 
great and good work for us to do— what is it? Find your answer in the organ- 
ization of the Sanitary and Christian Commission and Soldiers' Aid Societies, 
all intended for the benefit of the men in the field. And now here to-day the 
opportunity is offered to give your aid, and let no man, or woman, or child, be 
found wanting. You know the righteousness of the cause in which they are 
suffering and dying— it is our country's, humanity's, my cause, your cause, the 
cause of posterity. Let us open our hands wide, and as every man has received 
from God, so in the name of God let him bestow. If your gift is small, so be it. 
It may be enough to send an agent of the Commission with a cup of cold water, 
a bandage, a little cordial, for the wounded and dying soldier. 

Fathers and Mothers! You have long enjoyed the blessings of our good 
government. Your son may be battling bravely to sustain it. Give of your 
abundance. It may moisten his parched lips, ease his broken body or stop 
the flow of his life blood. 

Young Men and Brothers! It is especially for us to sustain our brothers 
in the field, and the cause of our country. Give in your health and strength 
and your hopes of a manly life. 

Wives and Sisters! You who are ever ready in every good work. Eemem- 
ber your husbands and brothers in the ranks of war. Prove again to-day that 
you are worthy descendants of the Mothers of the Revolution. 

Little Children! Remember your fathers faraway, battling for your future 
welfare, and while your mothers teach you the first duties of patriotism, bring 
your little gifts. 

Let us all do our duty this day. The soldier will bless us, humanity will 
bless us, posterity and God will bless us. 

After the address and some patriotic music, a splendid dinner 
was served free to all, but for which many paid liberally. A sub- 
scription was passed around, and everybody gave largely beyond ex- 



I'JJ lIlSTdRV OF 

pectation. Several town lots and many other things were put up 
for sale and sold and re sold at higli figures, the proceeds going into 
the soldier's fund. From these and other sources the grand sum 
contributed was .*452.3ft, which with twenty dollars contributed a 
day or so later made the sum of .*47l2. G'?, making in all the splendid 
aggregate of $924.85 for Faribault county and which, considering 
the population and means of the people, made this the Bnnnt r Coioitij 
of the atdte. The funds were sent to the Christian Commission. 
Everybody was proud of this patriotic affair at the time, and those 
who took an active part in it like to talk about it and are proud of it 
to this day. 

A TOPIC OF THE TIMKS. 

During the spring and summer there was again consideralbe talk 
in certain localities of another attempt to remove the county seat 
from Blue Earth City, but it failed to "crystalize" into action. 

THE NATIONS" BIRTHDAY. 

The Fourth of July was not generally celebrated in this county, 
in this year, but a pic nic was held in the town of Verona on that 
day, which was largely attended, and proved a very pleasant affair, 
and, in fact, is still remembered by many. 

On the 18th of this month the President called for fiye hundred 
thousand more troops. The war was being prosecuted with terrible 
energy, as will be seen by reference to the summary of battles, etc. 
at the end of this chapter. Men were falling daily at the front, by 
the thousands, but the glorious shouts of victory over treason were 
resounding throughout the land. 

THE HUSBANDMAN'S REWARD. 

The harvest commenced this year as early as the middle of 
July. The weather was fine, and the crops were never better in this 
county than this year. Every kind of grain was good and abundant, 
and was safely harvested and secured. Wheat in Winona, in this 
State, in the early part of July, sold at §^2.05, the price, however, 
was much less than that here. But there are some people who 
are never satisfied. Uncle Josh — an old settler — has always been a 
grumbler. If it rains he grumbles; if it is dry he has great fore- 
bodings. "'Well. Uncle Josh, you have very fine crops this year." 
said a neighbor to him one day, to see what he would say. "Yes," 
said Uncle Josh, "that are so, very fine craps, but these heavy craps 
is mighty hard on the land, I tell yer." 



FABIBAVLT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 195 

THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS. 

A special session of the commissioners was held August 13th. 
■when the following resolution was adopted: 

"Resolved, that the sura of one hundred dollars be, and the same is 
horeliy appropriated, as a bounty to each person who has enlisted, or may enlist 
in the military or naval service of the United States, and be credited to any 
township in Faribault county, under the present call of the president for 500,000 
men, to be paid upon satisfactory evidence of such enlistment and credit." 

At this same time the several town districts in the county were 
giving very liberal bounties, as will be seen by reference to the his- 
torical sketches of the several towns. The commissioners met 
again September 6th, and on the thirteenth day of October, but we 
find nothing in their action to be noted here. 

INDIANS AGAIN. 

All along during the spring and early part of the summer, 
rumors of renewed Indian troubles in the west and southwest, 
were current, and a general Indian war, all along the border seemed 
imminent. The fears entertained were not without foundation, as 
the Indians did commence hostilities on the plains, in Nebraska, 
and at various points on the extreme western frontiers. Many 
whites were killed, and emigrant trains, on the plains, were attacked 
and destroyed, and in Minnesota a number of small hostile preda- 
tory bands of Indians were skulking and marauding on the frontier. 
About the 11th of August two murders were perpetrated by Indians 
near Vernon, in Blue Earth county, Mr. Eoot and Mr. Mack were 
killed, and a number of horses stolen. 

The government sent out strong foi'ces in every direction 
against the red skins. Gen. Sully again advanced with a strong 
force up the Missouri river. With this expedition was Brackett's 
battalion in one company of which— Cap t. J. A. Read's— were some 
twenty Faribault county men. An expedition under command of 
Col. Thomas, in which was Capt. Davy's company, composed largely 
of Fairbault county men, left Minnesota in May, and crossing the 
western part of the State and Dakota in a westerly direction joined 
the Sully expedition in July, on the Upper Missouri. 

The result of these rumors and murders here was another great 
excitement and much uneasiness. But the people did not leave 
their homes. No actual outbreak occurred in the State, but to quell 
the excitement and protect the country. Col. B. P. Smith, of Man- 
kato, was directed by the Governor of the State, to organize com- 
panies of "Mounted Minute Men," along the Blue Earth river. On 
the 25th of August a company of forty-two men, was organized and 
armed under command of Dr. R. R. Foster, lieutenant at Blue Earth 
City. 



196 



BISTo/.y OF 



Here is the company roll: 



R. W. Foster. 
C. Getchell. 
G. Bartholomew. 
J. B. Landis. 
J. A. Rose. 
P. Mead, 
J. Blocher. 
M. McCrery. 
J. Dayton. 
Levi Chute. 
J. Behse. 
A. E. Champney. 
G. T. Foster. 



B. D. Gillett. 

F. A. Squires. 
A. Gray. 

J. B. Gillett. 
J. Marble. 
W. Silliman, 

C. Butler. 

C. Huntington. 
Henry Kamrar. 
A. Bonwell. 
Z. Carbell. 
E. .7. Earl. 

G. Franklin. 



G. B. Kingsley. 
M. E. Gano. 
P. C. Seely. 
S. Mead. 
G. D. Nash. 
I. S. Mead. 
C. W. Gillett. 
F. Morehouse. 
W. Sharp. 
Frank Read. 
Wm. Coon. 
E. Ellis. 
Edward Wakefield. 



At Winnebago City a similar company of thirtj' men was en- 
listed under command of James Grays, lieutenant. We have not 
succeeded in getting the names of the members of this company for 
incorporation in this history as we should have liked. The minute 
men received ?2..")0 per day, paid by the State. 

A line of strong military posts having been established through 
the counties west and north of this, between which constant com- 
munication was kept up by scouts, the companies of ^minute men 
were, about October 2d, disbanded. Many of these frontier posts 
were maintained through the next year, and until the spring of 
1866, and were vory neCessary as we shall see hereafter, to the pro- 
tection of the borders. 

SAVING THE COUNTRY. 

The presidential election came on this year. Vast interests 
were involved, and at stake, but not so much in local as in national 
politics. Very early, statesmen, politicians and the rank and file 
of the two great parties were at work. 

Abraham Lincoln had been nominated by the republicans for 
reelection to the presidency. Gen. Geo. B. McLellan was the can- 
didate of the democracy. 

Wm. Windom was the republican and H. W. Lamberton the 
democratic candidate for Congress in this district. 

Horace Austin, of St. Peter, republican, and Daniel Buck, of 
Mankato, democrat, were the candidates for judge of the Sixth 
.Judicial District, of which this county was a jiart. 

The Republican Union County Convention met at Blue Earth 
City on the 24th day of August. It was largelj' attended, and har- 



FMIIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 197 

monious in its action. The proceedings resulted in the following 
nominations: 

A. Bonwell, for Register of Deeds. 

F. W. Cady, for County Auditor. 

.Tno. K. Pratt, for Clerk of Court. 

Geo. Hart, for Judge of Probate and Court Commissioner. 

Thos. Blair, for County Commissioner 3rd District. 

The democracy met in mass convention at Blue Earth City, 
August 30th, and made the following nominations: 

For Senator, 20th district, George B. Kingsley. 

For Representative, R. B. Simmons. 

For Register of Deeds, James H. Huntington. 

For County Auditor, Thomas S. Fellows. 

For Clerk of Court, Chester M. Sly. 

For Judge of Probate and Court Commissioner, Jo. L. Wier. 

The republican union district convention met at New Ulm, in 
Brown county, on the 3d day of Sejatember, and unanimously nomi- 
nated D. G. Shillock, of Brown county, for senator, and J. A. Kies- 
ter, of this county, for representative. 

James L. Huntington was an independent candidate for Register 
of Deeds. 

The general election was held on the 8th day of November. 
A large vote was polled. The following table gives the result of 
the official canvass of the votes. 



198 



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FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 199 

As the county returns show the results of election only as to 
county officers, it may be stated that Abraham Lincoln was re- 
elected president, Wm. Windom was re-elected member of congress, 
Mr. Austin was elected jadge of this district and D. G. Shillock was 
elected senator and J. A. Kiester, representative. 

GOLD AND SILVER. 

Soon after the war commenced, gold and silver money began to 
grow scarcer and scarcer until they entirely disappeared from circu- 
lation. They fluctuated very greatly in value. Gold soon began to 
bring a premium. A dollar in gold was valued at from one dollar to 
as high as two and eighty- two one hundreths dollars in ' -greenbacks," 
depending on the condition mainly of public affairs and the circum- 
stances of the war. A rebel victory of importance sent gold up, a 
great union victory sent gold down. Speculation and some other 
causes also affected the value. Silver followed closely upon the 
heels of gold. During several of the last years of the war and for a 
number of years after, neither gold nor silver was seen. If some one 
happened to have a "quarter" or a "dime" and choose to exhibit it, a 
crowd would soon gather around to see the curious relic. During 
these times, the "circulating medium" was greenbacks, national bank 
notes of one dollar and upwards, fractional currency of five, ten, 
. twenty-five, fifty and seventy-five cents called "scrip." That was the 
"soft money" epoch, the "greenback age." "Hard money" began 
again to appear near the close of the seventies. First came nickel 
five-cent pieces, then ten centpi,eces, afterwards larger silver pieces 
(three of which made a dollar) and then silver dollars, and about 1880 
and 1881 both gold and silver money, the latter depreciated, became 
quite common, but greenbacks and national bank notes still formed 
a large part of the currency. 

VAKIOUS INCIDENTS. 

The sixth annual fair was held at Winnebago City on the 23d 
and 24th days of September. It was a decided success. The weather 
was fair, the attendance large, and the show of stock, grain, vegeta- 
bles, fruits and articles of domestic manufacture excellent. 

On the 31st day of October the first sale of school lands was had 
in this county. The commissioner of the State land office, Hon. Chas. 
McIUrath, attended in person. The sale took place at Blue Earth 
City. Much interest was manifested in the sale, and people were 
in attendance from all parts of the county. There were 924 acres of 
land sold for the aggregate sum of 117,621.60, of which sum S14,904.91 
were paid in hand, and on the balance remaining unpaid, the interest 
was paid for one year in advance, according to the terms of sale, 
amounting to $109.45, thus adding in money to the school fund of the 



200 HISTORY OF 

State the sum of *15.014.36. And this was the time when many of 
our citizens purchased their ••wood lots'" from which has come the 
fuel which has kept them warm and made the "pot boil" for many 
years since. 

THE WAU. 

On the 19th of December the president issued a call for 300,000 
more volunteers to finish the war. This was the fourth call during 
the year and the aggregate number called for during the year was 
1.500.000. 

The government and the loyal people of the North had become 
in terrible earnest Military operations, and matters incident 
thereto, absorbed every other consideration in all sections of the 
country. The rebels were putting forth almost superhuman and in- 
human efforts, while in the North the cry went forth from the moun- 
tain and plain, from the city and the farm house, "no compromise," 
"down with treason," "crush the rebellion, cost what it may, in 
men or money!" 

In military operations this year was particularly remarkable for 
the vast destruction of property in the South by the Union armies. 
This had become a necessity. Of the almost innumerable battles 
and important events of the year, but a few can be noted here. 
March 12th, Gen. U. S. Grant made commander of the U. S. armies; 
March 28th. battle of Cane River. La.; May 5th. the great battle or 
series of battles of the Wilderness began — one of the greatest exhi- 
bitions of military iirowess known to history; May 8-10, battle of 
Spottsylvania; May loth, battle of Raseca; .June 1st. battle of Cold 
Harbor; .June 19th, the rebel pirate Alabama was sunk by the 
Kearsage; July 1st, public debt, ^1,740,000.000; July 20-22d, great 
battles near Atlanta. Ga. ; July 30th, Chambersburg, Pa., burnt by 
rebels— loss !j^l, 000, 000; Aug. 5th, Admiral Farriguttakes Mobile.Ala.; 
Aug. 9th, Atlanta, Ga.. bombaitled by Gen. Sherman and fell Sept. 
2d. and was burned; Sept. 19th, about this time there was great fight- 
ing in the Shanandoah Valley, Va. ; October 19th. battle of Cedar 
Creek, Va.— this was a terrific fight; Nov. 14. Gen. Sherman left 
Atlanta on "the march to the sea"; Nov. 25th, an attempt was made 
to burn New York City by southern desperados, who set fire in 
their rooms in fifteen different hotels and other places, but the plot 
failed. At this time Gen. Grant, with the army of the Potomac, was 
operating about Richmond, Va. , the rebel capital; Dec. 15-16th. great 
battle of Nashville, Tenn. ; Dec. 21st. Gen. Sherman captured Savan- 
nah. Ga. Although when the year closed the rebellion was still 
raging, yet the back-bone of the Confederate power was broken. 
Any other power on earth, after the terrible defeats suffered by the 
rebels in 1863 and 1864. would have given up in despair, but the Con- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 201 

federates were Americans. And now, as the year closed, hopes of 
final triumph over treason, and of peace soon to come, wei'e cheer- 
ing the loyal millions. The year was indeed a mighty one in the 
history of the nation. Glorious in its victories in the field and 
forum, and at the ballot box for the Union cause, and correspond- 
ingly terrible to the rebels and traitors of the South, and their sym- 
pathizers and allies everywhere. 



202 HISTORY OF 



CHAriEK XL 

A. D. 1865. 

"Now arc our brows bound with victorious wreaths; 
Our bruised arms hunj; up for monuments; 
Our stern alarms cliani^'ed to merry meetings: 
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures. "" 

We now enter upon the record of another year of general reckon- 
ing in this historj'. We have reached, so to speak, another mile- 
stone in the journey, the eleventh year of the county. By comparing 
the very full statistics of this year, with those of former years, we 
shall see that the county has made great progress in the past, and 
bids very fair for the future. 

LEGISLATION. 

The seventh State Legislature assembled Januarj- 3d. and ad- 
journed March 3d. 

The members of the legislature for this district, were D. G. Shil- 
lock, of Brown county, senator; and J. A. Kiester, of this county, 
representative. 

The onlj' legislation of this year, of special interest to the peo- 
ple of this county, was an act fixing the time of holding the annual 
term of the District Court, for the first Tuesday of June, in each 
year, and a Memorial to Congress introduced by Mr. Kiester pray- 
ing the establishment of a mail route from Blue Earth City, in this 
county, via. Fairmont and Jackson, to Yankton, the capital of Da- 
kota Territory, and an act granting swamp lands to aid the Minne- 
apolis and St. Cloud Railroad Company in the construction of their 
road. This company was authorized to build a branch road, (Act of 
1856), southward from Minneapolis to the Iowa state line, which would 
pass through either Martin or Faribault counties. This bill was fa- 
vored by both of our members, as it afforded some prospect of a rail- 
road in one or the other of said counties. At this session Daniel S. 
Norton was elected United States senator, to succeed Mr. Wilkinson. 
Andrew C. Dunn, of this countj- was again chief clerk of the House 
of Representatives. 

Considering the action of this and some other sessions of the 
legislature, the following statement is not much out of the way. 

''A young politician" writes: "Why does a State have a legislature?" My 
dear boy, It doesn't. The legislature has the State, every time. Has it by the 
throat by a large majority. Has it by the pocketbook. Has it on its back. You 
bet your slippers young man, the State never has the legislature,— iJiin/e»c." 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 203 

THE COMMISSIONERS. 
The honorable board of commissioners met January third. 
Allen Shultis, of Elmore, was chosen chairman for the year. Other 
meetings of the board were held March 28th, April 18th, May 26th, 
and June 27th. No business of historical interest was transacted at 
any of these meetings. So much for the commissioners during the 
first half of the year. It may be observed that the County Record 
about this time exhibits a number of long lists of bounty orders of 
fifty dollars and one hundred dollars issued to soldiers. 

CONSCRIPTION AND EXEMPTION. 

A call for 300,000 additional troops having been made in De- 
cember, 1864, as we have seen, and a draft having been ordered to 
take place on the 8th day of March of this year, to fill up the ranks 
of the army, considerable excitement and activity in military affairs 
existed throughout the county, during January and February. The 
quota of each town had been assigned, and to prevent drafting, 
large town and county bounties wei-e offered, and recruiting agents 
were abroad everywhere, and men were being enlisted in large num- 
bers. It has often been said during the war, "well, the county can- 
not furnish another soldier," yet at every call, numbers were still 
found ready to enlist and march to the front and fill up tlie ranks of 
the country's defenders thinned by disease and rebel bullets. In 
order to reduce the quotas of the several towns to a just basis, by 
discharging such as were not, because of ill health, or other physi- 
cal infirmities, qualified for military service, many of our citizens, 
in February, went before the enrolling board at Mankato, to be ex- 
amined and exempted, if so entitled. The expenses of those who 
were exempted, of going before this board, were paid by the sev- 
eral towns. And this proceeding was an entirely proper, in fact a 
necessary one, to determine the just quota from each town, by 
striking out of the estimate of the population, or basis of deter- 
mining the number due from the several towns, those who were 
really not liable to draft. 

Owing to alleged corruption and other causes, all the exemp- 
tion certificates granted at this time, were subsequently cancelled, 
and so the whole proceeding went for naught. 

SPRiNc;. 
Spring dawned upon the laud about the middle of March, and 
farmers prepared for seeding, but the weather was quite unsettled. 
Some seeding was done the last week in March, but the greater part 
along the middle of April, and there was some very cold weather 
late in this month. In fact this spring, like many others, was one 
of frequent changes of cloud and sunshine, of alternating smiles and 
tears. 



'20i HISTOJIY OF 

fire! fire! fire! 

On Sunday. March 26th, atabout eleven o'clock, a. m., the build- 
ing used for county oltices at Blue Earth City, was discovered to be 
on fire. The register of deeds, Mr. Bonwell. to whom the building 
belonged, had left the house but a few minutes before, having first 
carefully closed up the stove in which was but little fire, and locked 
the outside door of the otfice. The stovepipe passed through the 
chamber Moor and out through the roof, thei-e being no chimney. 
The stove pipe was somewhat old and much rusted, and it is quite 
probable that the soot in the pipe took fire, making the pipe very 
hot, thus setting fire to the adjoining wood work, or perhaps holes 
had been eaten through the pipe by rust, through which fire may 
have escaped. In the experience of insurance companies, such pipe 
arrangements have been found so dangerous, that companies have 
long refused to insure buildings where the pipes pass through the 
roof. 

Albert Sortor first discovered the fire and gave the alarm. He 
ran to the building and bursting open the door, commenced car- 
rying out the books. C. Huntington, John Blocher and several 
others, were soon on the ground, and by their joint exertions, all 
the books and most of the valuable papers were saved, though some 
of the books were somewhat damaged. 

Quite a number of papers, however, on file in the auditor'% cases, 
and a large package of deeds and other instruments in the regis- 
ter's department, which had, fortunately all been recorded, but had 
been left in the office, were burned. It was a most fortuuate escape 
from destruction, as nothing of great value, in either the auditor's or 
register's office was lost. But Mr. Bonwell, besides the loss of the 
building, lost also considerable personal property in the building at 
the time, and consumed with it. 

VICTORY, VICTORY, PEACE! 

About the third of April the whole country was electrified by the 
announcement of the glorious news that the Union arms had tri- 
umphed over the last strong-hold of the rebellion, and peace was at 
hand. After four years of bloody conflict, in comparison with 
which, most of the wars of the earth sink into insignificance, the 
national flag at last waved over the rebel Capital — the head and 
heart of the monster rebellion. On the 9th day of April, Lee sur- 
rendered to Grant, at Appomattox. The full import and signifi- 
cance of these great events cannot be described here. No pen can 
do justice to the occasion, and no words could give utterance to 
the emotions of joy and hope and thankfulness which swelled the 
hearts of the loyal millions of the land, but those of the old hymns — 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 205 

the grandest of the ages, the Gloria in Excelsis and the Te Deum 

Laudamus. 

"Glory be to God on high and on earth; 

Peace, good will toward men." 
"We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge 
Thee to be the Lord. 
All the earth doth worship Thee, the 
Father everlasting." 

ASSASSINATION, DEATH. 

And now following fast upon the joyful news of final victory 
and peace, and while the people were giving hearty expression to 
their feelings, there came the appalling tidings of the assassination 
of President Lincoln, on the 14th day of April, by J. Wilkes Bootli. 
The world was shocked, stood aghast, confounded at the atrocity 
of the deed. 

In the very hour of the final triumph of that cause — the pre- 
servation of the Union and the life and liberties of the nation, he, 
the chiefest actor, the most revered and beloved, the purest, the 
wisest and most merciful, had fallen by the hand of the dastardly 
assassin. 

Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, the friend of 
man, name blessed evermore with Washington, in the records of our 
race, was martyred, murdered. 

"Divinely gifted man, 

* * « 

The pillar of a peoples' hope 
The centre of a world's desire." 
Oh, perfidy I Oh, crime! when didst thou such an other deed as 

this'? 

"This is the bloodiest shame, 
The wildest savag'ry, the vilest stroke 
That ever wall-eyed wrath, or stareing rage." 
conceived, or Hell's agents executed. 

The sacrifice of Lincoln was the crowning sacrifice of the war, 
the outgrowth, the final culmination of that demoniatic spirit of 
ti'eason, which, in the graphic words of another made "the parra- 
cidal effort to destroy the nation's life by murder; murder on the 
lakes, murder and piracy on the high seas; murder and arson in 
cities; murder by the introduction and spreading of loathsome and 
contageous diseases; murder and highway robbery by guerrillas; 
murder and starvation of over thirty thousand defenseless prison- 
ers. " It was indeed such a spirit and only this, that could breed 
such a moral monster as him who did this deed. 

And that far-seeing and wise statesman, that kindly man, that 
incorruptable and faithful executive bore. 

"—His faculties so meek hath been 
So clear in his great office, that his virtues 
'Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against 
The deep damnation of his taking off ." 



206 inSTOltV (IF 

Probably no events in the world's history ever carried a great 
people to such heijrhtsof rejoicing and such depths of grief, almost 
simultaneously as those we have just related. The citizens of this 
county always earnest and patriotic, keenly appreciated the signifi- 
cance of these mighty events, and gave utterance to their thoughts 
and emotions in words and earnestness of manner unmistakable. 

INDIAN DEPREDATIONS. 

About the first of May the country was again thrown into a great 
state of excitement by the reports current, that the frontier settlers 
were in danger from prowling bands of Indians. War with the In- 
dians was still in progress on the plains and on the extreme western 
frontiers, which lasted until late in August of this year. But the 
jirincipal local cause of the excitement and apprehensions, was the 
murder by the Indians of the .Tewett family, near Garden City, in 
Blue Earth county, on the second day of May. The family consisted 
of six persons, five of whom they murder in cold blood and severely 
wounded one, a child. Horses were stolen at various points, and 
other depredations committed by these marauding red skins, but 
as these events did not occur in this county, we shall not enter into 
details; suffice it to say, that some of the murderers of the Jewett 
family wore killed by scouts from Port Wadsworth. and one of them, 
Campbell, a halC-breed, a diabolical wretch, and the leader of the 
.Jewett murderers, was taken, and was hung by order of Judge Lynch 
at Mankato. As a result of the excitement, the "mounted minute 
men" of the previous year, were again, by order of the State author- 
ities, called out. The company at Blue Earth City was reorganized 
under Lieut. Foster, and the one at Winnebago Citj- and others along 
the Blue Earth river and at other points on the frontier reorganized, 
but did not long remain in service, for very soon a line of military 
posts was establislied and kept up, from Alexander on the Red river 
of the North, to Spirit Lake on the Iowa boundary. 

About the time of these depredations, a novel idea was con- 
ceived by certain persons on the frontier for the protection of the 
border, and the hunting down of these skulking Indian marauders. 
The expedient adopted in many of the slave states for the recovery 
of runaway slaves by putting bloodhounds upon their track to 
hunt them down in the cane breakes, swamps and jungles of the 
south, recommended itself as a feasible method of pursuing these 
Indians in their devious ways. Several persons were sent to the 
southern states for the purpose of pi'ocuring hounds, and they re- 
turned with quite a number, which were parcelled out to several 
frontier counties, and were paid for by those counties. The hounds 
were to be kept at certain points, and be used when occasion re- 
quired. This county did not enter into the "bloodhound scheme" 



FAllIBAVLT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 207 

as it did not appear to be of any practical utility. The whole 
project finally proved useless. And now the writer is happy to 
say that the above is the last notice of the Indians it will be neces 
sary to take in the course of this history, for the above incident 
was the last one in the history of our relations to the red men, our 
predecessors on this soil. The Indian Reservations in Blue Earth 
county and on the Upper Minnesota, had now been broken up for 
several years and ere this year closed, the Indians were driven far 
from this immediate country, to return as hostiles, no more forever, 
and 

"Of their mortal weal or woe, 
No trace is left to-day. 
For like the foam upon the wave 
They all have passed away." 

A GRAND REVIEW. 

On the 23d and 24th days of May of this year, there occurred 
the grandest military review the world ever eaw. On those days— 
the victory won, the war ended — the victorious eastern and western 
armies of the republic made their triumphal entry into Washington, 
the capital of the nation. On those great days these battle-scarred 
legions of the Union, the heroes of many bloody conflicts with trea- 
son, travel worn, covered with sweat and dust, but proud and vic- 
torious, marched in review for the last time, and through the broad 
streets of the capital city of that nation which had been redeemed, 
protected and made one forever. No such pageant as this was ever 
seen before. History tells, indeed, of the grand triumphal displays 
accorded to Roman conquerors in the days of old, but they bear no 
comparison with this, they were but the rewards of conquests and 
robbery and the soldiery were in the main. 

" But ambition's tools, to cut a way, 

To her unlawful ends.'' 

But here, on those days, marched in the serried ranks, thousands 
and tens of thousands of the intelligent volunteer soldiers of the re- 
public, not with the spoils of conquest and arms befouled with 
rapine and plunder, but bearing the honors of freemen — of citizen 
heroes, who fought for constitutional liberty, for the maintenance 
of the Union, the supremacy of law, that the grandest, freest nation 
of all time — the last hope of the world might continue to live. And 
in those gallant companies and regiments and battalions there 
marched many of our own citizens, men of Faribault county, proud 
as the proudest, brave as the bravest, following their tattered battle 
flags, the relics of many a bloody day. 

And borrowing the imagery, though not the language of the 
poet, we may well express the thought that with the mighty hosts 



208 msTony of 

that inarchod along those broad aveuues on those proud days, there 
was another and a mightier host which kept step with the triumphal 
music, invisible indeed to mortal eyes, but indeed there, great hosts, 
proud and victorious too. led by the immortal Washington and the 
other heroes of the Revolution, and the martyre Lincoln, and num- 
bering in the vast throng the patriot dead of all the battlefields of 
the Ko))ublic and the heroes of every age and land who have suffered 
and died for human freedom, for civil and religious liberty. 

No, reader, no such another pageant has the world ever seen, or 
may ever see again. 

THEY COME. 

Immigration began to pour into the county the last of May, and 
continued throughout the season, much of it, however, going through 
this county to the counties of Martin and .Tackson, immediately west 
of this. The settlement of the near counties on the west was 
deemed by many, at that time, to be of almost as much importance 
to this county (at least the next best thing) as the settlement of the 
county itself, for the people must, in those counties, be for a time, 
and in many respects, tributary for supplies to this county. 

HUMILIATION AND PRAYER. 

The first day of June was appointed by the national executive, 
as a day of prayer and humiliation, on account of the death' of Pres- 
ident Lincoln. It was observed in this county by appropriate ser- 
vices in the churches and other places of religious gatherings. 
"Remember not. Lord, our offenses, nor the offenses of our fore- 
fathers; neither take Thou vengeance of our sins; spare us good 
Lord, spare Thy people. From lightning and tempest, from plague, 
pestilence and famine; from battle and murder and from sudden 
death; from all sedition, privy conspiracy and rebellion. Good 
Lord, deliver us." 

HEAR YEl HEAR YEl HEAR VE! 

The District Court held a session of one day on the first Tues- 
day, the fith day of .June. Hon. Horace Austin presided, and this 
was his first term in this county. 

POSTING UP THE BOOKS. 

A State census was taken in June, of this year, the work being 
done in each countj- by the assessors. Our statistics for the year are 
made up partly from the census tables, and partly from other olticial 
I'eports subsequentlj' made. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY. MINNESOTA. 



209 



NO. 1— POPULATION. 



Barber 

Blue Earth City. 

Brush Creek 

Elmore 

Foster 

Guthrie 

Jo Daviess 

Lura 

Marples 

Pilot Grove 

Prescott 

Seely 

Verona 

Walnut Lake 

Winnebago City. 



Totals 4,735 2,517 



13 




en 
o 

s 

fa 


244 


144 


100 


807 


425 


382 


233 


115 


118 


295 


162 


133 


166 


8H. 


78 


367 


200 


167 


241 


124 


117 


362 


199 


163 


290 


158 


132 


175 


90 


85 


384 


207 


177 


88 


43 


45 


337 


178 


159 


283 


152 


131 


463 


^32 


231 


4,735 


2,517 


2,218 



s 



58 
150 
39 
66 
30 
75 
49 
64 
56 
30 
82 
24 
67 
58 
78 



926 



NO. 



-STOCK, ETC. 



The returns show 1,257 horses; cattle, 5,587; sheep, 6,004; hogs, 
991 ; 760 wagons of all kinds, and 81 watches. 

NO. '6 — VALUATIONS. 

The total value of all taxable personal property was set down 
at 1172,647.00; value of real estate, $650,094.00; total, $822,741.00. 

NO. 4— CROPS, ETC. 

The number of acres under cultivation was 10,887 and the farm 
products of the year were wheat 109,672 bushels, oats 115,872 
bushels, corn 92,110 bushels, barley 7,331 bushels, potatoes 51,537 
bushels, beans 729 bushels, buckwheat 200 bushels, sorghum syrup 
12,387 gallons. 

NO. 5— SCHOOL MATTERS. 

The number of persons between five and twenty-one years of 
age, was 1,854, number of school districts 62, number of teachers 50, 
number of school-houses 22, which were valued at $4,925.00 in the 



NO. 6— PRICES. 

The prices of grain, in the fall, average as follows per bushel: 
wheat 50 to 55 cents, oats 20 to 25 cents, corn 25 to 30 cents. All 
kinds of "store goods" still continued at high figures, but ''with a 
downward tendency." As a matter of curiosity in may be stated 
that a record kept in Raleigh, N. C, in the closing Confederate 
days of February, 1865, shows that apples were $8 per dozen, bacon 
18 per pound, beef |3 per pound, butter $10 per pound, corn $30 



210 HISTORY OF 

per bushel, coffee !?40 per pound, eggs ^i per dozen, flour fSoOO per 
barrel, sugar '^1^^ per pound, sj'ruj) *25 per gallon, sheeting iftj per 
yard, salt $90 per bushel, calico *15 per yard, wood $95 per cord. 

About the 1st of April of this year, the Richmond Whig published 
at Richmond. Va., ([uoted flour in that cit^' at $900 to $1,000 per 
barrel, corn >=100 per bushel, and butter $20 per pound, in Confeder- 
ate money, however. 

The statistics presented here from time to time are made up from 
official reports, but it is time now to remind the reader, that our 
ordinary state statistics are not very reliable, or accurate. The 
assessed valuation of property, at least until very late 3'ears seldom 
exhibits the true value. Perhaps fifty per cent, could be added to 
the official estimates, and not exceed the real value. 

The reports of the amount of the different kinds of grain, etc., 
raised, and the numbers of the various kinds of stock, are almost, if 
not quite, equally faulty. All these statistics are imperfect, and are 
only valuable in a genei-al way. but thej^ are the best we have and 
we give them as we find them, for whatever they are worth. The 
statistics collected when the national census is taken, are usually 
more reliable than our ordinary state statisties. and help to "cor- 
rect up" and show quite nearly the actual facts and conditions, from 
time to time. The collection, collation, classification, adjustment and 
verification of statistics constitute a science of much "importance, 
and is one understood by but few. Our state commissioners of 
statistics doubtless do the best they can, with the means and 
methods they have at hand, but the primary collection of all the 
necessary data is in hands that but little comprehend the import- 
ance of the work, and have little incentive to do it well. 

THE patriot's DAY. 

On the Fourth of July a great celebration of the day was had 
at Blue Earth City. Very extensive preparations had been made 
and a large number of people attended and took part in the festivi- 
ties. The good old Declaration of Independence was read by Capt. 
P. B. Davy, and James B. Wakefield delivered the oration, and what 
with the address, the music, an abundant dinner, the great attend- 
ance, the fine day and the spirit of rejoicing over the close of the 
war, the celebration was a grand success. 

The day was also celebrated at Minnesota Lake. The largest con- 
course of people ever assembled in that portion of the county 
gathered there on this occasion. The Rev. A. W. Childs read the 
Declaration and J. A. Kiester, of Blue Earth City, delivered the ad- 
dress. Here also patriotic music and a bounteous dinner were a part 
of the programme. These were the only celebrations of the day in 



FAIUBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 211 

the county, the people having generally concluded to attend at one 
or the other of these places. 

It may be mentioned as an incident of the time and the patriotic 
spirit of our local press, that the Blue Earth City Advocate came out 
in colors, the outside being printed in red, the inside blue, the paper 
white in honor of the brave old flag, "red, white and blue," which 
now waves victorious over the whole land. 

And never to this time, at least, was there such a general and 
enthusiastic celebration on the Fourth of July, such a great out- 
pouring and rejoicing of the people as occurred this year through- 
the whole country. And it was very right and proper that it should 
be so, for at no time in the history of the country, since the achieve- 
ment of independence had there been so much to render the day il- 
lustrious and worthy of commemoration and rejoicings. The final 
triumph of the nation over treason and rebellion, the Union restored, 
the great war just ended, peace, white-winged and all glorious, once 
more hovering over the whole land, the great body of the citizen 
soldiers — the heroes of the war — returned again to their homes, all 
now added much to the previous significance of the day and its grand 
memories and associations. 

A SUMMARY. 

The great civil war having now closed, we give a brief summary 
of the closing vents which occurred during the year to this time, 
and also certaii other facts and figures relating to the war of inter- 
est and value. 

January 15th, Port Fisher was taken by the Union army. This 
was the last pv, t of the rebels. February 18th, the Union troops 
enter Charleston, S. C. March 4th, Pi-esident Lincoln inaugurated. 
March 16th, battle of Averysborough. March 19th, battle of Ben- 
tonville, N. C. April 2d, Gen. Lee evacuated Richmond and Peters- 
burg, Va., and retreated westward. Same day the battle of Selma, 
Ala. was fought — a Union victory. April 3d, Union troops took pos- 
session of Richmond, Va. April 9th, Lee surrended to Grant at Appo- 
mattox. April 10th, Mobile. Ala., evacuated by the rebels. April 
12th Union troops captured Salisbury, N. C. April 14th, President 
Lincoln assassinated. April 25th, Booth, the assassin, shot. April 
26th, Gen. Johnson surrendered to Gen. Sherman. May 4th, Gen. 
Taylor surrendered to Gen. Canby. July 7th, four of the villians 
engaged in the assassination plot were hung. No great battles were 
fought after the middle of April. The armies were disbanded, and a 
great majority of the troops returned to their homes during the 
next six months. 



21L' BlSTUllY o/' 

In the Adjutant General's report for the year, -we find the fol- 
lowing statement of quotas and credits of men for this county, under 
all calls during the war. 

Quota. Credits 
Blue Earth Cil.v 88 97 

Brush Creek ) ' 25 21 

Foster ( 

Elmore 27 28 

Guthrie 27 35 

Marples 46 18 

Pilot Grove 35 25 

Prescott 18 31 

Seely 5 4 

Verona 46 48 

Walnut Lake 31 19 

Winnebago City 48 74 

396 400 

There were eight others furnished by the county, not included 
in the above table, making our total credits 408. 

While a few of the town districts in the county were in arrears, 
yet the county as a whole, furnished twelve more men than was re- 
quired, and the number of soldiers furnished by this county, in pro- 
portion to population, was greater than that of any county in the 
State except perhaps two. 

It was reported about this time that there was one county in the 
State, which in this respect surpassed all others — the whole popu- 
lation, without exception, having enlisted — it appeared however, 
that there was but one resident in that county. 

The aggregate amount of bounties paid by this county and the 
several towns, and otherwise contributed to encourage enlistments, 
was the very large sum of seventy-five thousand dollars. 

The entire enlistments in the Union armies, during the war, 
were 2.688,523, but many of these were i-e-enlistments, and it is esti- 
mated that the entire number of individuals, forming the armies, 
was really but 1.500.000. 

Of these 56,000 were killed in battle, 35,000 died in hospitals of 
injuries received in battle and 184.000 died in hospitals of disease. 
Many died afterwards in other places, of disease, and thousands 
were ruined in health for life. The national government also em- 
ployed over 7,000 vessels on the waters, in the great contest. Of 
the Confederate forces, there was, during the war, an aggregate of 
600,000 men. but this is deemed a low estimate. The Confederate 
killed and wounded and sick, who died in hospitals, was about 
300,000. In a late work we read that "The entire amount expended 
by the national government, by states, counties and towns, and con- 
tributed in other ways, to the comfort or sustenance of the army, 
is computed at f!4, 000, 000, 000. The support of the southern army 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 213 

cannot be ascertained, but it is thought that those expenses and des. 
truction of property, inflicted about an equal loss on them. These 
losses in life and property are fearful, but they are the price of free- 
dom and nationality." And now, so far as this history is concerned, 
we are done with the great civil war, and we have only to add that 
it should be the earnest hope, the constant prayer of every heart, 
both north and south, that never again, in all our history as a nation, 
may another so great a calamity be inflicted upon us, and to this end 
let us forget the past, .cease recriminations, drop the hard names of 
rebel, traitor, copperhead and all other epithets, and all unite 
as brethren in strengthening the foundations, rearing the struc- 
tures, promoting the interests and enjoying the blessings of the 
strongest, the most enlightened, most progressive and best govern- 
ment ever known among men. 

BUSINESS. 

With the close of the war came a new era in many respects. 
Money became plenty, real estate took an upward tendency, outside 
capital came into the State and county for investment. All branches 
of trade and business greatly revived and there was employment for 
all at fair wages, and the attention which the war and its affairs had 
absorbed was now turned to local interests and enterprises. 

THE INGATHERING. 

On the first of August the song of the reaper began to be heard 
in the land. The harvest was quite favorable. The wheat and oat 
crops were very heavy, but other crops quite light. The i^rice of 
wheat in August was seventy cents. 

CALAMITIES. 

The potato-bug, a very destructive insect, made its appearance 
in this region near tlie middle of June, and did some damage, and in 
July several immense swarms of grassshoppers visited the upper 
Minnesota river and came as near to us as Garden City, some twelve 
miles north of this county, where they did much injui'y to crops. 
But little notice was taken of these incidents at the time and they were 
soon forgotten, but we shall have much more to say hereafter about 
these pests. We are now done with the Indians and the war of the 
rebellion, what other calamities now await us? It is often true that 
"Coming events 
Cast their shadows before." 

THAT BOARD. 

The commissioners met September 5th, and had a session of 
three days. It having appeared by the returns of the last preceding 
general election, that over eight hundred votes had been polled in 



214 UfSTOIlY OF 

the county, tlie county now beciime entitled under the law, to five 
instead of three county commissioners and the board at this meeting 
proceeded to divide the county into five commissioner, districts, as 
follows: The First district was comprised of the towns of Camp- 
bell, Elmore, Pilot Grove and Jo Daviess. The Second district, of 
Blue Earth City, Emerald and Prescott townships. The Third dis- 
trict of Kiester. Seely. Foster, Brush Creek, Walnut Lake and Cobb 
townships. The Fourth district of the towns of Winnebago City, 
Verona and Guthrie. The Fifth distinct was composed of the towns 
of Barber, Lura, Marples and Dunbar. The board also appointed 
school examiners, in conformity to the new commissioner districts, 
as follows: No. 1. J. A. Dean; No. 2, J. A. Kiester; No. 3, S. L. Rugg; 
No. 4, J. H. Welch; No. 5, Joseph Claggett. This was the last 
meeting of the board for this year, and the last board of on ly three 
commissioners, it subsequently being composed of five members. 

THE FAIR. 

The officers of the Agricultural Society for this year were 
J. A. Latimer, president; C. M. Sly, secretary and D. Birdsall, 
treasurer. 

The fair was held at Blue Earth City on the 21st and 22nd days 
of September. 

The fair while passably good, was not considered oiuch of a 
success. While the officers of the society and a very few others 
made considerable effort to keep up the society and make the fairs 
of interest and useful, it must be written that about this period in 
the history of the society, extending over several years, there was 
not that interest manifested in it and that unity of action on the part 
of the people, generally, which is so necessary to the support of 
such an institution. 

THE FALL FIGHT. 

The political campaign of this year covered a considerable pe- 
riod of time, and it was quite a lively and in some respects a peculiar 
contest. Among the other interesting features of the campaign, a 
governor of the State and several other State officers were to be 
elected. 

The republican candidate for Governor was Wm. R. Marshall 
and Henry M. Rice was the democratic candidate. 

On the 30th day of August, the Republican Countj' Convention 
met at Blue Earth City and made the following nominations. 

For Treasurer, Wm. Dustin. 

For Sheriff, W. J. C. Robertson. 

For County Attorney, J. B. Wakefield. 

For Surveyor. D. Birdsall. 

For ,Judge of Probate, A. Preston. 

For Coroner, D. H. McDowell. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 



215 



On the 16th day of September a mass convention was held at 
Blue Earth City, at the instance and in the interest of those wlio 
did not approve of all the nominations of the republican convention. 
This meeting nominated R. B. Johnson for treasurer and Hiram 
Raymond for sheriff. The other republican nominations were in- 
dorsed. This convention was rather slimly attended, there being 
persons present from only seven towns, and the prospects for the 
election of the new nominees were not at the time very flattering. 
But "great oaks from little acorns grow, etc." 

And sometimes "great aches from little toe-corns grow." 

But the situation was still not satisfactory to all, and so on the 
23rd day of September a mass convention was held at Winnebago 
City, where certain republicans and the democrats formed a coali- 
tion. This convention made the following nominations: 

For Sheriff, Charles Chaple. 

For Treasurer, R. B. Johnson. 

For County Attorney. J. L. Weir. 

For Surveyor, A. H. Pelsey. 

For Judge of Probate, A. Preston. 

For Coroner, D. H. McDowell. 

It will be observed that several of the regular republican nom- 
inees were re-nominated by this convention. The principal contest 
was for the offices of treasurer and sheriff. 

The Republican Legislative Convention met at Winnebago City, 
October 2nd and nominated J. B. Wakefield for representative. 
For the same office the democracy again placed in the field R. B. 
Simmons, of Martin County. 

The election was held on the seventh day of November, and the 
following table exhibits the result as officially declared : 



Brush Creek 

Barber 

Blue Earth City. 

Elmore 

Foster 

Guthrie 

Jo Daviess, 

Lura 

Marples 

Prescott 

Pilot Grove 

Seely 

Verona 

Walnut Lake 

Winnebago City. 

Total 



Repr. 



Judge 



^ 



11 
11 

104 
27 
9 
32 
U 
28 
28 
53 
20 
12 
34 
22 



67 



475 111 



17 



14 
32 
140 
31 
15 
36 
31 
28 
41 
56 
24 
12 
44 
31 
64 



.Sheriff 



Treas. 



598 42 180 426 418 229 499 437 176 586 



Sur. Atty. Cor, 



14 
16 
119 
27 
15 
30 
14 
28 
28 
36 
21 
12 
38 
26 
75 



14 
11 
117 
27 
10 
29 
15 
28 
22 
56 
22 
12 
37 
3 
34 



o 
G 
o 

14 
.32 
140 
32 
15 
42 
31 
28 
41 
35 
24 
12 
44 
31 
65 



216 HISTORY OF 

For Governor, Wm. R. Marshall had a total vote in the county 
of 501; Henry M. Rice had 138. 

The following-named persons were elected county commission- 
ers without opposition: 

Allen Shultis, District No. One. 
Henry J. Neal, District No. Two. 
John R. Sisson, District No. Three. 
H. H. Oilman, District No. Four. 
J. Claggett, District No. Five. 

Marshall was elected Governor of the State by a large majority, 
and Wakefield was elected representative of the district. The re- 
turns, as given above, indicate who were elected as county officers. 
The I'esultof the election as to sheritf and treasurer, was surprising 
to most of the people, and quite as surprising to the candidates them- 
selves. This was the first regularly organized "bolt," or formal 
op))osition to the regular nominees backed by convention nomina- 
tions, which had occurred in the republican party, or in fact in the 
politics of the county. 

The two newspapers took a great interest, on opposite sides, to 
some extent, in the local campaign, besides some questions of dif- 
ference had arisen earlier in the j'ear between them, and an examin- 
ation of the old files proves the fact that a great deal of a very poor 
class of dirt was ••slung" back and forth by both, and both equally 
bad, reminding the reader of the story of the Dutchman who, on 
being aslced the ago of himself and wife said, •■mine wife is dirty (30) 
and I ish dirty two." 

No frost occurred in September of this year, and the autumn 
was an unusually mild and pleasant one, and continued until about 
the middle of December, when the winter set in, introducing its reign 
by a heavy snow storm. 

THE GRAND ROSTER OF THE SOLDIERS OF FARIBAULT COUNTY. 

THE NAMES OK THE MEN FROM THIS COUNTY, WHO HEU'ED TO 
FIGHT THE (SKEAT BJITTLES. 

"Ye have kept the tlag and seal. 
Emblem «f the Nation's weal: 
Ye have stood like hardened steel 
In war's crimson way— the battle field— 
When shot and shell did ring the knell 
Of coniratles brave who 'round ye fell, 
Ye did leave your friends and home, 
And loved ones weeping', left alone 
To see the flag and country saved," 

And saved them. — Tai.bot. 

There is presented in this history of the county many rolls of 
liouor of the early settlers of the county and lists of public officers 



FABIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 217 

and of the actors in many important events, but there is now pre- 
sented here the most honorable of all our rolls, that of the names 
of the men who enlisted from this county, in the militai-y service 
of the United States, during the Rebellion and the Indian war in 
the Northwest. 

This year practically closed the war, and it is now time to name 
the men of our county, who in the day of mighty conflicts with 
powerful foes, took an active part, as soldiers, in the great struggle 
for our homes, for the Union and for the maintenance of free gov- 
ernment on this continent. 

The list is not absolutely correct in every respect, but it is as 
nearly so as it is possible to make it, for there are errors in the 
public official records themselves, but many, if not all of which, are 
corrected here. 

The writer is greatly indebted in making up this I'oster, to 
Charles A. Rose, now of St. Paul, but a former resident of this 
county, and a soldier, enlisted from this county. 

Mr. Rose, as a public officer of the Stale for many years, has 
had access to all the official records in the capitol of the State and, 
owing to his long services in the army, is also possessed of a large 
personal knowledge of individuals and events connected with the 
war and there are few, if any persons, who are better qualified to 
prepare such a list than he. 

The writer is also indebted to James H. Mead, of Blue Earth 
City, another old soldier, for valuable assistance and suggestions 
in making up the roll. 

The companies and regiments given are those in which the 
first enlistments were made, but many, after the expiration of their 
term of service, re enlisted in the same or other companies and 
regiments. But of the re-enlistments, official positions or promo- 
tions, no record is here made, the principal object being to present 
and preserve here simply the names of those who enlisted in the 
service of the nation from our county. The re-enlistments numbered 
about twenty- eight per cent, of the original enlistments. 

ENLISTMENTS. 

liLUE EARTH CITY TOWNSHir DISTRICT. 

Andrews, Alfred D Company D, 9th Regiment Infantry, tfiree years 

Brown, Aaron " B, Braclcet's Battalion, 

Botsford, Isaac *' B, " 

Butler, Zirary C " C, 5th Regiment Infantry, 

Blackmer, Franfc A, " C, utli " 

Converse, Geo. S " B, Braclcet's Battalion, 

Decker, A. L. M " F, 1st Regiment Infantry. 

Grout, Albert K " C, otli 

Harris, Peter E " C, ,5th 

Johnson, John " F, 5th " 



218 



HI STONY OF 



Leslie, Sam.. .Ir 


Conipanv H, 


2(1 


Ueninient Infantry, 


thre*! years 


Mead, Jas. II 


C, 


.ith 






It 


McFall. Orlando 


C, 


."■.th 






tl 


Morris, Wiu. D 


... " F. 


5th 






11 


Prall, Alliort 


D, 


!)th 








Rose, Chas A 


. . . " C, 


.5th 






tt 


Siiuires, Freeman A.... 


B, 


Bracket" 


s Hattalion, 


** 


Scliroeiler, Peter 


... " F, 


5th 


Regiment Infantry, 


tl 


Schrocder, Herbert 


F, 


5th 




(( •' 


tt 


Schrueder, Win 


D, 


9th 




1 ( > 1 


It 


Thoiiipkins. Hiram — 


B, 


Bracket 


s Battalion 


*' 


Wheeler, Wm 


H, 


2d 


Reg 


nient Infantry, 


tt 


Yuun^', E. C 


... •• F, 


5th 




i. It 


tl 


Andrr'ion Evan 


L, 


Mounted Rangers, 

(t It 


one year 


Anderson, .JelT 


L, 


tt 


Anderson, Geo 


L, 




It 


(1 


' ' 


Mrown, John 


L, 




** 


(f 


II 


Bennett, Leon 


L, 




• 1 


it 


It 


Cusick, Wm 


L, 




(( 


II 




Cook, Geo 


L, 




1 1 


tl. 


li 


Daw, Peter B 


L, 




It 


ii 


li 


Davis, Geo. R 


... " L, 




'• 


It 


It 


Ellis, Ezra M 


.... " L, 




(i 


It 


ti 


Ellis, Henry 


... " L, 




" 


tt 


tl 


Ewald, Henry C 


L, 




i( 


It 




Frandall, John J 


L, 




" 


ii 


ti 


Fo.\, Markham L, 


L, 




H 


It 




Frandall, Geo 


... " L, 




n 


II 


II 


Frandall, Jos 


L, 




1( 


i( 


li 


Franklin, Benj 


... " L, 




'• 


If 




Grittin, Lucius 


L, 




'* 


It 




Hdwland, Geo. H 


... " B, 




" 


t( 


" 


Hyatt, Norman H 


... '• L, 




'* 


1 1 




Johnson, Ole 


L, 




'* 


it 




Johnson, Henry 


... " L, 




•■' 


11 




Jameson, James 


L, 




i ( 






Kamrar, Henrv 


L, 




it 


1 1 


*l 


Krinke, Michael 


L, 




ti 


'* 


it 


Larson, Henry E 


... " L, 




(t 


(1 


41 


Leslie, Sam. Sr 


L, 




l( 


It 






L, 




K 


II 


»' 


Manthie, Julius II — 


.... •' L, 




" 


11 


*• 




B, 




4 1 
tl 


11 
11 


'* 


Newton. Wm. J 


.... " B, 


ti 


^plmtn Christian 


L, 




1( 


tt 




Nelson, Ole 


L, 




" 


It 


" 


Oleson, Harvey S 


L, 




li 


K 




Rose, Jacob A 


.... " B, 




H 


" 




Salor, Abel 


L, 




(( 


It 




Smith, Cyrus 


L, 




t( 


It 




Sailor, Martin 


L, 




• t 






Sailor, Jacob 


L, 




'^ 


It 




Silliman, Wayne B.... 


B. 




li 


t t 


** 


Weber, Henry C 


L, 




" 


It 


*' 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 219 

Waterbury, Sam B Company IT, Mounted Ranijers, one year 

Weger, John " H, 2ncl Regiment Cavalry, three years 

Williams, Wm " H, 2ncl 

CacUlv, Geo " H, 2nd 

Kennedy, Chas " H, 2nd 

Conklin, Wm.H " H, 2nd 

Bartholemew, R. R " H, 2nd " " " 

Bartholemew, Arthur " H, 2nd " " " 

Bakeman, Girard " H, 2nd •' •' " 

Coutier, Leon L " H, 2nd " " " 

Caddy, Geo. Jr • " H, 2nd " " " 

Dagner, Geo " H, 2nd 

Ellor.Joseph " H. 2nd 

Hunter, Otis M " H, 2nd " " " 

Kortt, Chas " H, 2nd 

Labatt, Geo " H, 2nd 

Mathews, Geo " H, 2nd 

Orr, Richard " H, 2nd 

Rude, Geo " H, 2nd 

Tallow, Stephen " H, 2nd 

Wheeler, Wm. G " H, 2nd " " Recruit " 

Wirt, George " B, Bracket's Battalion, " 

Gulickson, Evan " C, 11th Regiment Infantry, one year 

Dalziel, James " F, 1st ■' Artillery " 

Ellis, John E " F, 1st " " " 

Franklin, German " F, 1st " " " 

Getchell, Theo. W " F, 1st " " 

Gardner, O. N " F, 1st " '' " 

Getchell, Chas. O " F, 1st " 

Ingalls, Ed. C " F, 1st " " " 

Jones, Chauncy W " F, 1st " " " 

Katzung, Vallon " F, 1st " " " 

Moore, Robert " F, 1st " " " 

Mead.OrrinF " F, 1st " " " 

Ogilvie. James " F, 1st " " " 

Pugsley, Gardner O " F, 1st " " " 

Sauvain, Just " F, 1st " " " 

Truesdell, Hill " F, 1st " " " 

Billings, Levi " G, ist " Infantry, three years 

Dullard, Michael " G, 1st " •' " 

Elivess, Fran " G, 1st 

Ordway, Isaac F " G, 1st " " " 

Whitney, John " G, 1st " " " 

White, John J " G, 1st '• " 

Seely, Philander C " H, 1st " " 

BHUSH CREEK TOWNSHIP DISTRICT. 

Emerson, John Company L, Mounted Rangers, one year 

Fletcher, Chas " L, 

Peterson, Regnald " L, " " " 

Walter, Wm " L, " " " 

Seaton, LeonC " H, 2d Regiment Cavalry, three years 

Bartheaume, Rock " H, 2d " " " 

Ackerman, D. J " H, 2d " " " 



220 



HISTOnv OF 



Cluii)au, liaiii Company H, 2d Regiment Caviilry, three years 

iM.U-y, Win " H, 2d 

.Idluisiin, Herman H " H, 2d " " " 

Martin. .Joseph " H, 2(1 

Dunliar, Chas. .S " H, 2d " " " 

Pine, John " H, '2d " " " 

Binsmore, Wiu " D, 1st " Artillery, one year 

Nelson, Elling " D, 1st " 

Nelson, Peter " V, 1st " " 

Shirk, Jaeol) E " F, 1st " " 

Livingston, Duncan '• G, 1st " " " 

Wood, Mason H " G, 1st " 

Wliitney, Lorin J " drafted 2d " Infantry, three years 

Hunt, Nathan " drafted 5th " " " 

ELMOKE TOWNSHIP DISTKICT. 

Boon, Daniel Company D, 9th Regiment Infantry, three years 

Cunimings, W. P. F " F, 5th 

Chute, Levi " C, 5th 

Chute, Xach " C, 5th " " 

Dobson,Jas " F, 5th " " 

Edes, Ed " F, 5th " " 

Greer, Mark M " C, 5th 

ITowland, Fred L " B, Bracket's Battalion, " 

Hale, John E " C, 5th Regiment Infantry, 

Preston, Sheridan " F, 5th 

Schneider, Simon '• I, 2d " " " 

Schneider, Freeman " I, 2d " " " 

Way, E. M " ¥, 5th 

Dane, Hartwell " L, Mounted Rangers, one year 

Ingalls. A. C " L, 

Tankard, Robt ■ H, 2(1 Regiment Cavalry, three years 

Barker, Walter " H, 2d 

Little, Rol.t. W " II, 2d 

Cook, Chas. E " II, 2d " " '• 

Woolery, Reuben " C, 11th " Infantry, one year 

El)eiline, Edward " F, 1st " Artillery, 

Gano. Marian E " F, 1st " " 

Morehoure, Francis " F, 1st " " " 

Morehouse, Rich. T " F, 1st 

Strong, Moses A " F, 1st 

Winn.Wm. B " F. 1st 

Allen, Horace B " G, 1st " Infantry, three years 

Baldwin, Will " G, 1st 

Comstock, Wm. H •' G, 1st " " " 

Pugsley, Wyman " G, Isi 

GUTHRIE, (NOW DELAVAN) TOWNSHIl". 

Alvey, Wm. T Company H, 3d Regiment Infantry, three years 

Burke, John F " D, 9lh 

Beatty, J. R " H, 2d 

Gray, Donald " H, ,W " " " 

McKinney, John " D, 9th " " 

Marsh, Enoch " H, 2d " " 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 



221 



Propper, Chas 


Company D, 


9th Regiment 


Infantry, 


three years 


Terry, Geo. R 


" A, 


7th 


(( 


" 


(( 


Johnson, Eleff 


" H, 


Mou 


nted Rangers, 


one year 


Miller, Saml. B 


" H, 


2d 


Regiment 


Cavalry, 


three years 


Chestnut, John 


" H, 


2d 


ii 


(( 


tt 


Snell, Isaiah H 


" H, 


2d 
2d 




(1 


u 


Bover, JohoH 


" K. 


(( 


Fessenden, Ed. D... 


" K, 


2d 


*( 


(( 


(I 


Fessenden, Chas. M. 


" K, 


2d 


" 


t( 


(( 


McColley, Alonze.... 


■' K, 


2d 


ti 


(( 


(( 


Reichart, Henry 


" C, 


nth 


Regiment Infantry, 


one year 


Bemis, Lucius 


" D, 


1st 


(( 


Artillery, 


• ( 


Johnson, Ellip 


" D, 


1st 


(( 


i( 


Donaldson, Cramers. 


" F, 


1st 


i( 


(« 


K 


Fuller, Myron L 


" F, 


1st 


u 


U 


i( 


Falsett, John 


" F, 


1st 


\i 


u 


i( 


Johnson, Bennett... 


" F, 


1st 


if. 


(( 


(( 


Henson, Ilalver 


" F, 


1st 


(( 


(t 


n 


McGuigKan, John... 


" F, 


1st 


t( 


(( 


U 


Mandigo, Danl. L. .. 


" F, 


1st 


u 


l( 


bt 


Ryan, Joseph 


" F, 


1st 


u 


i( 


(i 


Ayers, Moses 


" H, 


1st 


(( 


u 


t( 


Gordon, Samuel 


" H, 


1st 


u 


tf 


(4 


Nickerson, F. L 


" H, 


1st 


(4 


*' 


(( 


Thorp, Henry C 


" K, 


1st 


1( 


(( 


n 


Sharo. Henrv 


Substitute. 






Sycks, F. Lewis 








MARPLBS, 


(NOW MINNESOTA 


LAKE 


,) TOWNSHIP DISTRICT. 


Brown, Henry 


Company H, 


3d 


Regiment Infantry, 


three years 


Beebe, R. W 


" F, 


4th 


*' 


u 


'' 


Myrick, Tellef A. . . . 


" H, 


3d 


u 


4t 


(; 


Taylor, Alfred L.... 


" F, 


4th 


u 


(I 


(( 


Heisey, Wm 


" L, 




Mounted 


Rangers, 


one year 


Taylor, E. H 


" H, 




" 


" 


u 


Taylor, Phineas B... 


" F, 


4th 


Regiment Infantry, 


three years 


Fish, Sam. Jr 


" F, 


10th 


(( 


i( 


'^ 


Graves, Geo.M 


" D, 


1st 


(( 


Artillery, 


one year 


Bandt, Fred 


drafted 


5th 


(( 


Infantry, 


three years 


Miller, Christian 


drafted 


5th 


(( 


" 


( I 


Urban, Wilhelm.... 




5th 
5 th 


(t 




t ( 


Stephens, Fred 


darf ted 


(» 


Marples, Charles 


drafted 


3d 


" 


(C 


i: 


Smith, Geo. A 


drafted 


3d 


(( 


11 


u 




PILOT GROVE TOWNSHIP DISTRICT. 




Albee, Albert C 


Company P, 


9 th 


Regiment 


Infantry, 


three years 


Blochner, John 


1 1 


1st 


Sharpshooters, 


Ik 


Gardnier, Joseph 


" B, 


Bracket's Battalion, 


<( 


McCrery, R. R 


" B, 


' 


t 


( 


(( 


McCrery, Jas. P.. .. 


" F, 


5th 


Regiment Infantry, 


'' 


Mount, Humphrey.. 


" D 


9th 


(; 


H 


1 1 


Waite, Reuben 


" D 


9th 
9th 






u 


Wallace, Horace 


" D 


i( 



222 



HISTORY OF 



Davis, Oriii G 

Ha/.elton, Diiniel 

Manthie, Krfcl. W 

More, Andrew R., Jr... 

Petit, Tlios. W 

Smith, Josiah 

Olds, John 

Cook, Aniasa 

Couthardt. Win 

Fettorly, Jas. S 

Foss, J . B 

Stoddard, Nathan 

Whitf, John D 

Cuniuiinps, Wiu 

Dean, John A 

Teeter, Reuben 

Hunter, Wiu., drafted.. 
Woolery, Robt.. " .. 



Brown, Jas. M Company 

Crandall, Leroy M " 

Eberline, Fred. E " 

Morehouse, James " 

Young, Lewis " 

Carver, Samuel " 

McDowell, David H 

Razey, Norman B " 

Spencer, F. L " 

Crandall, Minor M " 

Crippin, Sam. S " 

Miles, Geo. S 

McDowell, Jonathan " 

Straight, Merrit 

Straight, Oriville " 

Straight, Forester " 

Straight, Jas. M " 

McColley, Nathaniel " 

Anderson, Geo. R " 

Brelsford, Daniel S " 

Fuller, Albert L " 

Gibbs, Geo. E 

Razay, Silas " 

Brelsford, Isaac W 

Huntington, Loyal " 

Hodgnian, A. J " 

Rose, Chris " 

Woodruff, Wallace A 

SKELY TOWNSHIP DISTRICT. 

Bontrager, John Company C, 11th Regiment, 

Wickwire, Michael S " C, 11th 

Kellogg, Judson " G, 1st " 

Otten, Mathew, drafted... " 2nd " 



c, 


")th Regiment In 


fan 


try. 


three years 


L, 


Mom 


ited Rangers, 




one year 


L, 










iK 


L. 










i( 


L, 










4( 


L. 










tl 


L, 










(• 


H, 


2d Regiment 


Cavalry, 


three years 


c. 


11th 




In 


fan try, 


one year 


c, 


11th 






K 


It 


c. 


nth 






l( 


tl 


c. 


nth 






It 


it 


c, 


nth 






tt 


*' 


c, 


nth 






tl 


tt 


c, 


nth 






It 


** 


B, 


5th 






tl 


three years 


c. 


.')th 






It 


It 




2d 






II 


1 1 




2d 






II 


(1 


FT TOWNSHIP. 








C. 


5th 


Regiment 


I 


n fan try 


three years 


D, 


9th 


(( 




It 


tt 


c. 


5th 


(1 




It 


>( 


D, 


9th 


'• 




■1 


It 


1), 


9th 


ii 






i,i 


L, 


Mounted Rangers, 




one year 


B, 


4 


u 






• tt 


B, 


' 


(( 






tc 


B, 


1 


(1 






*' 


H, 


2d Regiment 


Cavalry, 


three years 


H, 


2d 


u 




II 


tt 


H, 


2d 


( . 




It 


tl 


H, 


2d 


It 




It 


tt 


H, 


2d 


i( 




It 


(1 


H, 


2d 


ti 




It 


(t 


H, 


2d 


t( 




i; 


i( 


H, 


2d 


u 




It 


li 


K, 


2d 


11 




tt 


it 


K, 


2d 


t( 




tt 


It 


K, 


2d 


(( 




tt 


It 


K, 


2d 


u 




1 1 


■* 


K, 


2d 


It 




It 


It 


K, 


2d 


u 




It 


11 


c, 


2d 


»i 




" 


tt 


H, 


1st 


t( 


Artillery, 


one year 


H, 


1st 


•' 




tt 


*' 


n, 


1st 


4i 




It 


tl 


H, 


1st 


(t 




II 


It 



Infantry, one year. 
It 1 1 

" three years. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 



223 



VERONA TOWNSHIP. 

Burgess, Harvey Company D, 9th Regiment Infantry, three years. 

Carlton, E 

Carlton, Wm. H 

DuCate, Moses M " 

Darlin, E. J " 

Dunham, John H " 

Forbes, Benj. F. jr " 

Franklin, Morrison " 

Geiser, Fred " 

Huntington, Henry M " 

Kent, Philo " 

Mayson, Wm. P " 

Nightengale, John A " 

Patton, George " 

Robertson, Jas. M " 

Towndro Wm. N " 

Walker, Henry R " 

Bursal!, Mitchell " Li, Mounted Rangers, one year. 

Cooper, Barney " 

Cooper, Sylvester " 

Pomeroy, Simeon " 

Stone, Lewis " 

Sancomb, Henry " 

Wakefield, Edward 

Harding, Hiram I '• H, 2nd Regiment Cavalry, three years. 

DuCate. Mitchell 

Foss, Melvin A " 

Nelson, Albert C " 

Nelson, Alex G " 

Shufelt. Sheldon " 

Whiteman, Joseph " 

Carlton, Nelson W " 

Carlton, Jas. S " 

Brayton, D. L '. " L', iltli ■' intantry, one year. 

Chapin, Morris P " 

Cooper, Joseph " 

Middaugh, John A " 

Maiers, Jas. A " 

Park, Frank L " 

Richardson, John L " 

Rice, Tobias L " 

Robertson, Chas. D " 

Dayton, John D " 

Netzel, John A •' 

Dibble, Jerome P " 

Champney, A. E " 

Cripps.Wm " F, 1st " Infantry, three years. 

Allen, David F " 

Filbel, Henry " 

Nash, Elbert " 

Wickwire, Philander " 

Stone, Lewis A " 

Yetter, Samuel " t\ ist '• Artillery, one year. 



B, Bracket's 


Battalion. 


D, 9th 


Regi 


ment. Infantry, 


D, 9th 




ti 




D, 9th 




(t 




D, 9th 




" 




D, 9th 




.i 




D, 9th 




(( 




A, 1st 




(( 




D, 6th 




(1 




D, 9th 




[( 




D, 9th 




(C 




D, 9th 




u 




D, 9th 




(( 




D. 9th 




( I 




D, 9th 




i( 




D, 9th 




il 




L, Moun 


ted Rangers, 


L, 








L, 








L, 








L, 








L, 








L, 








H, 2nd Regiment Cavalry, 


H, 2n(l 


(( 




" 


H, 2nd 


(t 




ii 


H, 2nd 


i( 




i* 


H, 2nd 


([ 




U 


H, 2nd 


•• 




(t 


H, 2nd 


i; 




bt 


K, 2nd 


i( 




u 


K, 2nd 


it 




'• 


C, 11th 


(( 




Infantry, 


C, 11th 


i. 




Ik 


C, 11th 


t( 




(( 


C, 11th 


(1 




a 


C, 11th 


t( 




'■ 


C, nth 


I i 




(( 


C, 11th 


( i 




u 


C, 11th 


" 




(( 


C, 11th 


a 




(I 


F, 1st 


u 




Artillery 


F, 1st 


it 




(( 


H, 1st 


" 




(( 


H, 1st 


(I 




(1 


F, 1st 


i( 




Infantry, 


G, 1st 


(( 




" 


G, Ist 


(( 




t( 


G, 1st 


i( 




ti 


G, 1st 


(( 




(1 


H, 2nd 


(( 




Cavalry, 


F, 1st 


it 




Artillery, 



10 I 



HISTOUY OF 



WALNUT t-AKK ToWNSIIll" DISTKICT. 

DulTy, James Company I, 9lli Ut'gimcnt lofantry, three years. 

DulTy, John " I, 9th " " 

Sauer, Chris " L, Mounted Rangers, one year. 

Post, Aaron S " H, 2d Regiment, Cavalry, three years. 

Post, W. H " H, 2d 

lialmat, Jerome " H, 2d 

Mattin, James " H, 2d 

Merry, James E " H, 2d 

Uolph, Geo. W " II, 2d 

Trowbridge, David " H, 2d " 

Waterbury. Sam. B " II, 2d 

Ford, James E " C, 2d " 

Aschman, Jcjhn " C, 11th " Infantry, one year. 

Kaufman, Jacob " C, llth 

Melady, Richard " D, 1st " Artillery, 

McGrady.Chas " D, 1st 

Weston, Chas. B " D, 1st 

Terhurner, John H " D, 1st " 

Stewart, Wm. W drafted, 2d " Infantry, three years 

Trowbridge, Truman " 4th " " " 

M'INNEBAGO CITY TOWNSDII". 

Baker, George Company B, Bracket's Battalion, three years. 

Brown, Frank M " D, 9th Regiment Infantry, " 

Burk, C. F " D, 9th 

Badger, Jas.S " H, 4th 

Badger, Sam. M " H, 4th 

Cograve, John W " H, 2d 

Chapel, Chas. E " C, 5th 

Chapin, Henry " B, Bracket's Battalion, " 

Crosby, Reuben II " H, 2d Regiment Infantry, " 

Chapel, John B " D, 9th 

Clabaugh, James " D, 9th 

Chesrown, Ezra " K, 9th 

Ellis, Wm.H " D, 9th 

Fagin, Daniel " H, 2d 

Goodfellow, Levi C " D, 9th 

Huntington, Jas " D, 6th " " " 

Latimer, Wash. K " D, 9lh 

Miller. John iN " B, Bracket's Battalion, 

More, John. " B, 

Miller, Peter M " D, 9th Regiment Infantry, 

Madison, Bailey " D, 6th 

Sinclair, John " D, 9th 

Terhune, Daniel F " D, 9th 

Terhune, Maurice " H, 2d " " " 

Taylor, Lyman " C, 9th 

\annice, Robt. R " B, Bracket's Battalion, 

Christie, J. Lute " II, Mounted Rangers, one year 

Fossett, Isaac " L, " " 

Lucas, Thdmas " B, 

Moar, Andrew " B, 

Mason. Jas " L, 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 



225 



Snell, Jacob Company B, Mounted Rangers, one year 

Washburn, Lewis " B, 

Warn, A " L, 

Hoover, Joseph " H, 2cl Regiment cavalry, three years 

Shufelt, Henry C ,.... " H, 2d 

Rohbins, Henry C " H, 2d 

Brown, Wm " H, 2d 

Clow,F.A " H, 2d 

Dunn, Geo. B " H, 2d 

Daby.Moses " H, 2d |' '' || 

Daby, Samuel " H, 2d 

Hockenhall, Joseph " H, 2d 

Kimball, Chas. H " H, 2d 

Lamphear, Mason H " H, 2d 

Robinson, John " H, 2d " " " 

Saunders, Geo. W " H, 2d 

Thurston, Wm. L " H, 2d 

Walter, Edwin " H, 2d " " " 

Webster, Sanford " H, 2d 

Latimer, Pleasant " D, 9th " Infantry, " 

Denton, Myron S " C, llth " " one year 

Goodnow, Julius C " C, llth 

Hardwig, W. H " C, llth 

Leise,Benj.F " C, llth " " " 

Mason, Jas. K " C, llth 

Miller, Wm.C " C, llth 

Hoffman, Leonard " F, 1st " Artillery, " 

Forsythe, Geo " G, 1st 

Carel, Patrick " H, 1st 

Dumpprope, David H " H, 1st " " " 

Kiefer, Scott " H, 1st " " " 

Snell, Jacob " L, 1st " " " 

Borden, Lysander " F, 1st " Infantry, three years 

Here the record of this tremendous year of triumphs, of great 
joys and profound sorrows, must close. 

And now but a decade of years has passed since the first settler, 
with his family, took up his residence here, not another white man 
within the borders of the county and surrounded only by the silent, 
virgin prairies, marked alone by Indian trails. But the fine soil, 
the distribution of the timber, the beautiful landscape and the salu- 
brious climate gave him good reason to hope that in the not distant 
future he should be surrounded by a prosperous and hapjay people. 
He was not disappointed. But ten years had passed and the county 
had a population of neax-ly five thousand people, two thriving villa- 
ges, mills and workshops, many good farms, schools and churches, 
society established, the laws administered and all the blessings of 
civilized life, existing under favorable auspices. 



226 HISrOIlY OF 



CHAPTER XII. 

A. D. 1866. 

""Tis done: again the conquering Chief appears, 
In the dread vision of dissolving years; 
His vesture dipped in blood, His eyes of (lame. 
The word of God His everlastinj; name: 
Throned in mid-heaven, with clouds of glory spread. 
He sits judgment on the quick and dead."— Jfonfffomeri/. 

The j'ear 1866 was one of the j'ears, which by religious enthu- 
siasts and would-be jirophets. as well as by some careful investiga- 
tors, have from time to time been foretold, as the last of the earth's 
history, the year, which should close the great drama of time, and 
be the final consummation of all sublunary things. 

Some of these predictions were based upon the supposed effects of 
the near approach to, or collision with, the earth in its passage, of that 
anomalous body, known as Biela's Comet, due in 1866. But the 
comet, though due, did not appear during this year. There has 
been for many years some forebodings as to the influence of this 
comet upon the earth. 

We proceed to relate briefly what events transpired in this 
county during this year, and it is necessary, in the order of time, to 
refer first to the new board of 

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. 

The Board, now consisting of five members, met on the 2d 
day of January and organized for business, by electing Allen 
Shultis, of Elmore, chairman for the year. A session of three 
days was held, during which much important business was done. 
Prior to this time the supervison of the public schools of the county 
was in the hands of five persons, known as school examiners. But 
a system existed by law at the time, which provided for a single 
superintendent of schools for the whole county, and who should 
receive such salary as the Board might deem proper. This system 
of school supervision could be adopted by any of the counties of the 
State, whenever the commissioners thereof deemed it advisable. 
At this session of the Board, the system was adopted for this countj\ 
and A. H. Pelsey was appointed superintendent, at an annual salary 
of 1^175 00. The examiner system then ceased to exist. The com- 
missioners met again on March 19th. June 28th, and Sept. 4th, but 
their action of historic interest is referred to elsewhere. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 227 

OUR STATESMEN. 

The eighth State Legislature met January 2d and adjourned 
March 2d. The district was represented in the legislature of 1866, by 
D. G. Shillock, of Brown county, in the Senate, and James B 
Wakefield, of Fairbault county, in the House. Mr. Wakefield was 
elected speaker of the House, being the first representative of the 
district who held that very important and honorable ofBce. An- 
drew C. Dunn, of this county, was again elected chief clerk of the 
House of Representatives. 

The legislature of this year re-districted the State for legisla- 
tive purposes. It was enacted that "The twentieth district shall 
be composed of the counties of Faribault, Martin, Jackson, Cotton- 
wood, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone and Rock, and shall be entitled to 
elect one senator and one representative."' 

The other acts of this session, relating to this county were: 

"An act authorizing the president of the town couacil of the town of Wln- 
nobaiio City to execute certain conveyances, and to amend an act entitled 'An 
act to incorporate the town of Winnebago City, approved Feb. 19, 1857.'" 

"An act to authorize the trustees of School District No. 7 in the county of 
Faribault to issue bonds for the purpose of building a school house in said 
district.'' 

"An act to legalize the action of the trustees of School District No. 14, in 
Faribault county, in issuing the bonds of said district to build a school house 
therein."' 

"An act to provide for the payment of certain taxes by the town of Emerald 
in Faribault county." 

"An act to provide for the location of a state road from Winnebago Agency 
in Blue Earth county to "Walnut Lake in Faribault county. 

"An act to locate and establish a state road from Wilton in Waseca county 
to Winnebago City in Faribault county." 

"An act to change the name of the town of Marples in Faribault county to 
that of Minnesota Lake." Approved Feb. 23, 1866. 

RAILROADS. 

In January, the legislature being in session, a railroad project 
was inaugurated by certain of the members, in which this county 
was interested. The following notice of the matter taken from the 
St. Paul Pioneer indicates the object and scope of the project. 

"Articles of incorporation of a new railroad company were yesterday filed 
with the Secretary of State. The object as the name indicates, is to construct 
a railroad from the Mississippi river through the southern tier of counties of 
this State to the Missouri river. The route of the road is described through 
Houston, Fillmore, Mower, Freeborn, Faribault, Martin, Jackson, Nobles and 
Rock bounties, and the main line is designed to run through the flourishing 
young cities of La Crescent, Chatfleld, High Forest, Austin, Albert Lea, Blue 
Earth City, thence to Yankton on the Missouri, with a branch line from High 
Forest to Rochester. The capital of the company is to be $10,000,000." 

Among the incorporators were the names of J. B. Wakefield, 
Geo. D. McArthur and Wm. Dustin, residing in this county. 



228 IIISTonV OF 

The Southern Minnesota Railroad Company had already been 
organized, and designed building a road through the counties above- 
named and had already made a ])artial survey of a route. But this 
route ignoring many of the villages above named, gave much dis- 
satisfaction to the people of those places. It was at the time ex- 
pected that congress would soon make a grant of public lands to 
the State, to aid in the building of a road through the counties named 
above, and which grant was made on the 6th day of July following. 
This new company was therefore organized to compete with the 
S. M. R. R. Co. for the grant, if satisfactory terms could not be 
made with that company as to the points or localities through which 
the road should run. 

The new company was named the La Crescent, Rochester and 
Yankton Railroad Company. 

It is proper here to give a synopsis of the act of Congress mak- 
ing the grant of lands, as it was through this grant our county se 
cured its first railroad, and further, because out of these railroad 
matters grew, subse(iuently, a great deal of political strife, in this 
as well as in some other counties. 

The grant was made by Congress to the State of Minnesota "for 
the purpose of aiding in the construction of a railroad from Hous- 
ton in the county of Houston, through the counties of Fillmore. 
Mower, Freeborn and Faribault to the western boundary of the 
State" and gave "every alternate section designated by odd numbers 
to the amount of five altei'nate sections per mile on each side of said 
road." But in case it should appear that any of the lands granted 
as aforesaid, should have been already claimed by settlers or other- 
wise disposed of, then other lands nearest to the lands granted, 
designated by odd numbers and within twenty miles of the line of 
road, might be selected to supply the deficiency. The public lands 
remaining to the general government, within ten miles of the line 
of road were raised in price to §2.50 per acre. 

And it was further enacted, "that the land hereby granted shall 
be disposed of by said State for the purposes aforesaid only, and in 
manner following: Namely: When the Governer of said State shall 
certify to the Secretary of the Interior that any section of ten con- 
secutive miles of said road is completed * * then the 
Secretary of the Interior shall issue to the State patents for all the 
lands in alternate sections, designated by odd numbers, situated 
within twenty miles of the road so completed, and lying co-terminous 
to said completed section of ten miles, and not exceeding one hun- 
dred sections, for the benefit of the road having completed the ten 
consecutive miles as aforsaid." 

"Provided, however, ]that the coterminous principal hereby ap- 
plied, shall not extend to such lands as are taken by the said rail- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 229 

road company to make up deficiencies. Provided that no land to 
make up deficiencies shall be taken at any point within ten miles of 
each side of the line of said road." 

The proceeding was the same for each ten miles of the road 
completed. The road was to be completed within ten years from the 
acceptance of the grant, or the lands not already patented reverted to 
the United States. 

This magnificent grant of lands was to be disposed of by the 
next succeeding legislature to such company and upon such terms 
and conditions as might be thought expedient. 

Out of these facts and circumstances arose the great "points" 
and "no points" contest in this and several other counties, which 
existed for several years and caused much turmoil, expense, bad 
blood and aspersion of character. It is interesting, even somewhat 
amusing at this distant day, to look back upon these events, which 
once so engaged the attention of our people, but are now almost for- 
gotten. The events of those times also illustrate through what 
great tribulations, grand and beneficent enterprises have often to 
pass before completion. 

METEOROLOGICAL. 

The weather during the latter part of December, 1865, and Jan- 
uary of this year, was very cold and stormy, and several persons in 
this county who were exposed, were frozen to death — one at Pilot 
Grove.two reported at Rice Lake and two at Minnesota Lake. About 
the 13th of February a terrific snow storm prevailed over the whole 
country, lasting some twenty- four hours, and will long be sadly re- 
membered for its fury and intense cold. A number of persons were 
frozen to death and others badly injured during this storm in this, 
and in Martin county. 

Much snow covered the ground during the winter and the spring 
was late and cold. But little seeding was done until the latter part 
of April. The spring of this year is well described in the following 
ironical words, lately penned by some cynical individual, who evi- 
dently does not "take much stock" in the usual platitudes written in 
relation to spring. 

•'Gentle spring, wrapped in flannel and furs: wheezing, coughing, sneezing 
and running up a doctor's bill; airy, draughty, rheumatic spring, lotions, mix- 
tures, cough drops and chest protectors— Hail, gentle spring." 

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY. 

February twenty-second of this year was the 134th anniversary 
of Washington's birthday, and it was observed with more than the 
usual formalities in the large cities, and expecially at the Federal 
capitol. The day is one of our national legal holidays. It has not. 



230 lllSTonV OF 

during the past years, been observed to anj- great extent in this 
county, nor is it generally observed to the extent it should be in the 
rural districts. In the larger cities it is, however, usually celebra- 
ted by extensive military parades, the closing up of business houses, 
the dismissal of the public schools for the day, the adjournment of 
public bodii\s and other appropriate ceremonies and demonstra- 
tions.. 

George Washington was born on the 22d day of February, 1732. 
and died December 14th, 1799. During the time intervening between 
these dates some of the most important political events in their par- 
ticular character and far-reaching influences upon the political des- 
tinies of mankind known to history, transpired on this continent, at 
the head of which, as chief actor, was Washington. 

But of all men living or dead it is the least necessary to write a 
eulogy on Washington, and the writer does not propose to attempt 
it, for the life, character and deeds of this man who was "first in war, 
first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen," are known 
to all people of intelligence everywhere. Even little children can 
talk to us about Wasliington. Yet a few words may be written here 
as the authors humble tribute to this great man. His. indeed, is the 
most illustrious name in history, unapproashed and unapproachable. 
And the justice of his exalted position is such that this place is ac- 
corded to him by the universal judgment of mankind. 

As commander-in-chief of the patriot armies in the long war of 
independence he proved himself to be one of the greatest military 
commanders of any age or nation. He was not only successful, but 
he accomplished success in the face of the most persistent opposi- 
tion of the best drilled soldiers of the age, and these results he 
achieved, not with ample means, but with less means to accomplish a 
purjwse than those possessed by any commander of ancient or modern 
times. Then having won the independence of his country and a 
position in which he could have assumed and retained absolute 
power, he crowned his military career and honors by as sublime an 
act as is anywhere recorded — he voluntarily surrendered his position 
and authority to those who r/ave it. Then placed at the head, as chief 
magistrate of a new nation, surrounded by greai and difficult prob- 
lems and untried ways and methods on every hand, he proved him- 
self as em iiimt n stati'sma)! and patriot as any age can name. Confi- 
dence in Washington was that of all things which made ))ossible the 
organization of our government, and no man, in any age, stood for 
so much to his country and uHink-ind as he. His ability, sagacitj'. firm- 
ness, foresight and moderation, provided not only for the exigency 
of the time, but marked out and plainly designated the way of the 
future, and then, this great work done, he again roluutarily lnidd<urn 
all state authority and power and retired to private life. Other men 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 231 

have founded great empires and established governments, but Wash- 
ington surpassed all other founders of empire in that, while they 
based theirs upon monarchical principles, arbitrary rule and self- 
aggrandizement, and depended for the support of their governments 
upon military power, he founded his upon the highest known principle 
of civil government — that of self-government, the equality of all citizens, 
from the highest to the lowest, in political right, and dependent prima- 
rily, for its support and perpetuity, not on the power of arms, but 
on the virtue and intelligence of the people governed themselves. 

Of the many illustrious men who surrounded Washington and 
assisted in the grand work of founding a great nation, many were 
great orators; he was not an orator. Some were great lawyers; he 
was not a professional lawyer, and many of them possessed greater 
learning than he, but after all is said and admitted, he after all was 
the center of all, the chief, his the guiding hand, and his the final 
directing wisdom. He seems to have been always not only master 
of himself but the final master of every emergency, and he was the 
central figure and the most revered of every assembly in which he 
ever appeared. 

Ambition, fame, glory, power, riches, honors, make up the sum 
total of the motives of the vast majority of great men, but Washing- 
ton seems to have been above all these things. 

Neither any, nor all of these motives combined furnished the 
motive of his actions, and so spotless was his personal character, both 
in public and private life, and such the unassumed natural majesty of 
his presence and bearing, that agents of venality, intrigue, dishonor 
or disrespect, never thought of approaching him. He was a good 
man as well as great, a quality much lacked by most great men, if 
indeed true greatness can exist without goodness. Justice, truth, 
honor, unselfishness and a conscientious performance of duty, were 
his characteristics. His fame, too, differs fi-om that of most other 
eminent men in the fact that while their names and deeds are be- 
coming forgotten in the lapse of time, his but becomes better known 
and more honored. 

The great Napoleon once said, "the name of Washington will be 
remembered and honored among men long after mine has been lost 
in the vortex of revolutions. " 

Yet Washington was not a God, nor a Demi-God. It was his 
great glory that he was a man, a man of like passions and tempta- 
tions as other men, yet so wise, so pure, so unselfish, so great. 

Finally, if any man's personal character and deeds are worthy 
of respect, if any man's example is worthy of imitation, if any man's 
birthday is worthy of perpetual remembrance, then may all genera- 
tions revere the name, imitate the example and celebrate the birth- 
day of George Washington. 



232 HlSronV OF 

EXIT ADVOCATE. 

The Bhtc Karth City Advocate, on the third day of April, came 
out under the new and very appropriate heading. Minnesota South- 
west. Of the change the editor says: "We propose to do our 
share in aiding southwest Minnesota to strike a gait that shall build 
up her railroads and place her on a footing equal at least to the rest 
of mankind in the race of progress. It was with a design to call 
attention more particularly to this, the best portion of the State, 
that we have changed the title of the paper, and we hope its readers 
will be satisfied and pleased with the change." 

THE COURT. 

The district court held its annual term in June. The officers of 
the court were: 

Hon. Horace Austin. Judge presiding. 
John K. Pratt, Clerk. 
Charles Chaple, Sheriff. 
The term lasted four days, and much important business was 
done. 

As Blackstone long ago intimated, in that admirable poem, "The 
Lawyer's Farewell to his Muse," there is in court proceedings but 
little of poetry, and less of romance. And there is also but little 
of historic interest, usually. 

"The wrangling courts and stubborn law 

* » * » * * 

The tedious forms, the solemn prate, 
The pert dispute, the dull debate, 
The drowsy bench, the babbling hall." 

Rarely, in this county at least, have furnished any incidents 
worthy of historic record; and hence some few amusing and other in- 
cidents which have occurred in courts other than our own, and illus- 
trative of the proceedings of the courts and the practice of the law, 
for they are much the same everywhere, are incorporated here oc- 
casionally. 

A famous writer has embalmed in a book, and we may do the 
same, the Irish Court Criers. Call, who desired to break the tedious 
monotony of the form of opening court, by adding to the usual dull 
sing-song words, "Hear Ye, Hear Ye. Hear Ye, the court is now 
open," the following expressive command, "And all ye blaggards 
that are not lawyers lave the building." 

THE HOMESTEADERS. 

On the 19th day of June, a Homestead Convention was held in 
Prescott township, of which J. C. Woodruff was president, and James 
Beard, secretary. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 233 

By the act of congress approved May 20th, 1862, and subse- 
quent acts amendatory thereof, known as the Homestead Laws, it 
was enacted that any person who is the head of a family, or who 
has arrived at the age of twenty one years and is a citi-zen of the 
United States, or who shall have filed his intention to become such, 
shall be entitled to enter one quarter section, or less, of any public 
lands, not appropriated, on the payment of ten dollars and one-half 
the fees of the local land office. No patent for the land entered was 
allowed to issue, until the expiration of five years, when proof had 
to be made of actual settlement and cultivation of the land, when 
the party was entitled to a patent, which vested in him, his heirs 
and assigns forever, a fee simple estate. The passage of this act 
gave a wonderful impetus to immigration. "Lands for the land- 
less," "Homes for the Homeless," became the popular cry of the 
times, and under this act many thousands of acres of land in this 
county were settled upon. Subsequently by order of the State Au- 
ditor dated June 16th, 1863, to the several County Auditors, these 
lands were entered on the assessment books, and were assessed and 
taxed as land to which the title had been perfected. This proceed- 
ing was sustained in several elaborate opinions by the Attorney 
General of the State. The homestead settlers, however, took an- 
other view of the matter, and claimed that these lands were not tax- 
able. Their opinion is set forth fully in a number of resolutions 
passed at the convention above referred to, several of which we 
quote. 

"Resolved, That it never was the intention of congress that we should pay 
taxes on these lands until after the issuing of our patents, as can be fully 
maintained by the decision of the Secretary of the Interior, the Homestead 
Law and various other acts of government." 

"Resolved, That we respectfully refuse to support for office any man who 
has been, or is likely to be, instrumental in taxing our homestead claims as 
deeded property until we receive our patents." 

It is not within our province here to discuss the merits of the 
question raised, but to state events as they transpired. The home- 
stead settlers throughout the State held about the same views on 
this subject of taxation, but no specific action or organization was 
effected except in a few of the southwestern counties, of which this 
was the principal one. Another new issue had now entered into 
our local politics for the homestead men, as they avow in one of the 
foregoing resolutions, determined to and did carry the matter into 
politics. There proceedings shall be noted as we proceed. 

HIGHER PRICES. 

About the first of July there was a remarkable advance in the 
price of grain and provisions. Wheat went up to $1.70 per bushel; 
flour to '111. 00 per barrel; grocex'ies advanced 25 per cent. Th 



234 HISTOHY OF 

rise was caused mainly by the beginning of war in Europe between 
Prussia and Austria. 

THE NATIONAL ANNIVERSARV. 

The Fourth of July was approjjrlately celebrated at Blue Earth 
City. A. H. Pelsey read the Declaration and the Rev. Mr. Cooper, of 
the Presbyterian church at thai city, delivered the oration. 

The day was also celebrated in Prescott township by home- 
stead settlers and others. In fact, the meeting was called the 
"Homestead Celebration." By a resolution passed with great 
unanimity, those who favored homestead principles were designated 
formally the homestead party. The party was thus christened on 
the great day of Independence. It does not appear that the day 
was celebrated formally at any other places, but an unusual number 
of picnics were had throughout the county. 

And now another word in refex'ence to homestead matters, which 
at the time created much interest with a large class of our citizens. 
Another homestead convention was held on the 14th of July in the 
town of Barber, at which a number of resolutions declaratory of 
homestead principles were adopted. These township meetings and 
organizations were prepai-atory to a county organization which oc- 
curred subsequently. 

The reader will observe, that there were many picnics on this 
Fourth of July day. Many of us know what this means, in the way 
of recreation. For those who do not care for the more elaborate 
and formal celebrations of the day, the pic-nic party, made up of a 
number of neighbors, held in some convenient grove, and having 
some appropriate speaking, readings and especially singing, is a 
luxury indeed. And this is not only a good way of observing the 
Fourth of July, but is a pleasure which should be enjoyed at 
other times. No one of right constitution can fail to approve the 
frequent out doors pic-nic for the old folks as well as for the young 
folks, for the day school and the Sunday school. 

The ride, the scenery, the shady grove, the freedom from re- 
straint, the balmy air, the dinner, the invigorating exercise, are 
pleasures not soon forgotten. 

We all greatly overlook, or make too little of the many ways of 
social and individual enjoyment ready at hand and all about us. 
For many persons one of the best means of relief and recreation for 
the over-taxed brain and body of the toiler in life's busy work, is a 
quiet leisurely walk in the green fields and along country roads and 
by-ways, away from the great world, divesting the mind as much as 
possible of care and anxiety and the evei-y-day subjects of interest. In 
the contemplation of the beautiful natural scenery which surrounds 
us in the summer days, the broad, free open prairies, with their 



FARIBAULT COUNTY. MINNESOTA. 235 

green, luxuriant grasses and wild flowers, the groves and forests, 
the silent river and the silvery babbling brooks, the cool, glimmer- 
ing lakes, the waving grain promising a golden harvest, the singing 
birds, the grazing herds and flocks, the free, pure breezes, the 
quiet, the i^eace and above all the glorious sunshine, we are lifted 
out of the dull, plodding, weary work of ordinary life, to a higher 
plain of existence. The exercise tills the lungs with new air, in- 
creases the action of the blood, stimulates the appetite, helps diges- 
tion and drives away nervousness. 

The mind and body are thus rejuvenated, the thoughts elevated, 
the heart and the life purified, and we have a foretaste of that 
golden age foretold by the seer and sung by the poet — the millennium 
— when war and strife shall be over, and pain and toil be forgotten 
and wrong and fraud and oppression forever ended, when the 
promise "on earth peace, good will toward men" shall be realized. 
Bless you I workman in the shop, the office, the mart, there is a 
better life, a better world, than that of toil and strife and bicker- 
ings and ambition and the lust for gold, and the cheatings and 
frauds and lies, and conventionalities and tyrannies of fashion, the 
jealousies and envyings and hates which so darken the life, wither 
the soul and curse the world. 

While we cannot ignore that which is necessary and proper on 
the practical side of life, yet every man, whatever his business, will 
be the better if he shuts up his shop, his office, his store, or at least 
retires from it occasionally, and goes out into the green fields and 
breathes the free, pure air, relaxes his mind and muscles and ban- 
ishes for a while corroding care. And if he has a wife and children 
he should take them with him Let the aged go out and renew their 
youth, and the young grow wise and strong, in communion with 
nature and its blessed works. 

"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, 
There is a rapture on the lonely shore. 
There is a society where none intrudes, 
By the deep sea, and music In its roar; 
I love not man the less, but nature more 
From these our interviews."— J5)-!/o?i. 

THE ATLANTIC CABLE. 

We must here turn aside for a moment from the relation of 
common-place local events, to state that in this year success 
crowned the oft- repeated but heretofore unsuccessful efforts to lay 
a telegraphic cable across the Atlantic ocean. The work was com- 
pleted in the month of July. Telegraphic communication was at 
last successfully established between the old world and the new. and 
the work was pronounced, and very justly so. one of the grandest 
achievements of science and human enterprise, a pei'manent and 



236 UJSTUJIV OF 

almost inestimable blessing to all nations, and crowning with im- 
mortal honor, the men whose genius, money, energy ami persever- 
ance, accomplished the great work. 

THE HARVEST, ETC. 

The harvest was interfered with somewhat, as the first week in 
August was charact«"rized by the most intense heat, accompanied 
with storms and terrific thunder and lightning. 

The crops were a failure in a great measure— except perhaps 
wheat in a few localities, and in consequence, business and improve- 
ments were much affected. The year was more than ordinarly wet, 
and the quite unusual circumstance occurred of high waters in August. 
But the year in these respects was not to be compared with the next. 
Several things, however, conspired to counterbalance the evils of 
the time, one of which was the large immigration and the other was 
the disbursement by the general government of immense sums of 
money in paying claims growing out of the war, as a result of which, 
the year in many localities, was deemed one of ease, financially. 

To add to the injury already suffered by the crops, a heavy and 
destructive frost followed by cold weather and cold rains occurred 
on the 20th of September by which the corn and vines were much 
damaged. 

There was much "saft cawn the yeai'." This will be remem- 
bered as one of the very few years in the history of our county in 
which the corn crop was nearly a failure. 

HARVESTING THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. 

The reaping of the cereal and gathering of some other crops 
takes place in different periods throughout the world, because of 
the different latitudes and consequently different seasons. The fol- 
fowing statement sets forth the harvesting period in almost all 
countries of the woi-ld: 

January — Harvest is ended in most districts of Australia, and 
shipments have been made of the new crop; Chili, New Zealand, 
Argentine Republic. 

February — Upper Egypt, India. 

March — Egypt, India. 

April — Coast of Egypt, Syria, Cyprus, India, Persia. Asia Minor. 
Mexico. Cuba. 

May— Persia, Asia Minor, Algeria, Syria, Texas, Florida. Mo- 
I'occo, Mid-China, Japan, Central Asia. 

June— California, Oregon, Southern United States, Spain, Por- 
tugal, Italy, Hungary, Turkey. Roumenia, Danube, South Russia, 
South of France, Danubian Principalities, Greece, Sicily, Louisiana. 
Mississippi. Alabama. Cleorgia, North and South Carolina. Tennes- 
see, Virginia, Kentucky, Kansas, Arkansas.Utah, Colorado, Missouri. 



FA RIB A UL T CO UNTY, MINNESO TA. 237 

July — Southex'n, Eastern and Midland English counties, Oregon, 
Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, 
Ohio, New England, New York, Virginia, Upper Canada, France, 
Germany, Austria, Hungary. Switzerland. Italy, Russia, Poland. 

August — United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, 
Manitoba, British Columbia, Lower Canada. Hudson's Bay Terri- 
tory, Denmark, Poland. 

September — Scotland, England, hops and roots; America, maize; 
Athabasca, wheat, barley, corn; Sweden, North Russia, France, 
beet root, buckwheat. 

October — Scotland. America, maize crop; Prance, Germany, 
vintage. 

November — Australia (North), Peru, South Africa. 

December — Australia (Soutb), Chili, Argentine Republic. 

THE FAIR. 

The Agricultural Society held a meeting at Winnebago City on 
the 14th day of September, at which time a list of premiums to be 
awarded at the annual fair, was made, and it was determined to hold 
the next fair at Winnebago City. The fair was held on the 2d and 
3d days of October. The weather proved to be favorable, and the 
attendance was larger than was expected. On the premiums award- 
ed, but sixty per cent only, was paid. Officers for the ensuing 
year were elected at this time, and they were L. W. Brown, presi- 
dent; J. H. Welch, secretary, and G. D. McArthur, treasurer. 

THE ANNUAL TUSSLE. 

We now proceed to relate the political events of this year. 
Wm. Windom was again the republican candidate for congress, and 
R. A. Jones was the candidate of the democratic party for the same 
office. On the 2d day of October, the Republican District Convention 
♦was held at Fairmont, Martin county, for the nomination of candi- 
dates for senator and representative of this district. The conven- 
tion consisted of eight delegates apportioned as follows: Faribault 
county, five; Martin county, two, and Jackson county, one. The 
other counties in the district were not represented as they had but 
little or no resident population at that time. Allen Shultis, of Fari- 
bault county, was elected chairman of the convention, and A. C Dunn 
of the same county, secretary. These details are mentioned because 
this convention was the most remarkable in some respects ever held 
in the district, and constituted the initiation to the most stubborn, 
bitter and ]Dersonal political contest ever waged in this county until 
the year 1870, and was only surpassed by the contest of that year. 
In this convention the issue was "points" or "no iDoints." Blue 
Earth City having three Faribault county and one other delegate in 



238 HISTOltY OF 

the interest of points, and Winnebago City having two Faribault 
county delegates and two others, in the interest of no point«, the 
former interest wished to nominate candidates favorable to estab- 
lishing by law the points or localities through which the railroad 
receiving the grant of lands heretofore mentioned, should be built. 
and the latter interest desired to nominate candidates opposed to 
confining the railroad to any definite points. 

A. Bonwell. of Blue Earth City, was the "points" candidate for 
the nomination for senator, and A. C. Dunn, of Winnebago City, the 
"no points"' candidate. 

The vote was a tie, standing four to four on senator for a num- 
ber of ballots, when on motion the nomination of senator was 
dropped for a short time and the convention proceeded to nominate 
a candidate for representative. Mr. A. Andrews, of Martin county, 
a points man, was nominated, his opponent being H. S. Bailey, of 
Jackson county. The balloting was then resumed on senator, and 
after a number of ballots a motion was made to adjourn, but was 
voted down and the convention proceeded to ballot for senator, but 
always with the same result— a tie. Everything possible was said 
and done, and some things said were in hot blood, to bring about a 
favorable result for one party or the other, but to no consequence. 

"When Greek meets Greek, 
Then comes the tug of war." 

About 8 o'clock in the evening, after some forty-six ballots had 
been taken on the nomination of senator, an understanding was had 
with one of the delegates, who before had voted against adjourn- 
ment, and the motion to adjourn without making the nomination of a 
candidate for senator was made and carried. This was the only 
thing that could be done, as on this question of senator each party 
was immovable, and if possible in the nature of things, would have 
been voting there probably to this day without a result on that issue 
rather than give in an inch. After the convention Mr. Bonwell 
withdrew from the field and Jas. B. Wakefield, at the request of the 
people of Blue Earth City and others favorable to points, came out 
as an independent points candidate for the senate. Andrew C. 
Dunn was announced as the no points independent candidate for the 
senate and H. S. Bailey, above-named, as the no points candidate 
for representative. 

On the I3th of October, the Republican County Convention was 
held at Blue Earth City for the nomination of candidates for certain 
county offices. 

The following nominations were made: 

For Auditor— P. W. Cady. 

For Register of Deeds — P. Lent. 

For Surveyor — J. R. Sisson. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 



239 



For Court Commissioner — R. Waite. 

For Coroner — W. A. Way. 

For County Attorney — Andrew C. Dunn. 

On the 20th of October, pursuant to call, a Homestead Conven - 
tion assembled at Blue Earth City. Regular delegates were present 
from seven towns and the number of others in attendance, interested 
in the homestead cause, was large. The convention was harmonious 
and somewhat enthusiastic, and with great unanimity made the fol- 
lowing nominations: For Auditor. Rev. A. H. Brown; and for 
County Attorney, Jas. B. Wakefield. For the other county offices 
the nominations made by the Republican Convention were approved. 

As no formal nomination had yet been made for senator by any 
party, this convention proceeded to nominate Mr. Wakefield and Mr. 
Andrews the republican candidate for representative was endorsed 
on motion. The convention then appointed a county central com 
mittee and the homestead party entered the campaign ready for the 
fight. 

The democratic party placed no candidates in the field. 

The election was held on the 6th day of November and the fol- 
lowing table exhibits the result as officially declared in this county. 

Wm. Windom was elected congressman, Wakefield and Andrews 
senator and representative in the District. A. R. Moore was 
elected county commissioner for District No. 1. and James Crays 
was elected to the same office in District No. 4. 





Senate. 


House. 


Auditor. 


Reg. 


Sur. 


Attorney. 


U. C. 

'3 


Cor. 




2 


a 
c 


•a 

a 

<; 


1" 
'5 
m 





a 




c 



□ 



X 




c 
a 
3 




Seely 


23 
101 

48 
28 
48 
91 
189 
63 
48 
41 
47 
15 


"2 
.... 

"u 

36 
35 
68 
23 
31 
63 
57 
123 

453 


23 
101 

48 
28 
44 
91 
189 
63 
49 
57 
46 
14 

' 28 

""2 

1 

784 


"3 
.... 

"u 
20 

36 
69 
22 
29 
63 
66 
127 

450 


5 

85 
24 

6 
10 
66 
150 
21 
29 

1?. 
46 
22 
55 
57 
67 
88 

757 


18 
16 
23 

22 
31 
25 
37 
42 
34 
70 
62 
31 

'"3 

2 

20 

29 

465 


23 

97 
48 
28 
45 
91 

183 
63 
63 
77 
80 
81 
22 
58 
62 
63 

122 

1206 


21 

98 
48 
28 
36 
91 

189 
63 
63 
77 
81 
81 
22 
58 
63 
67 

122 

1208 


23 
101 

48 
28 
43 
91 
187 
63 
47 
51 
48 
14 

■36 

""5 

1 

780 




.... 

"is 

26 
33 
67 
23 
28 
6! 
59 
120 

437 


23 

99 
48 
28 
45 
91 

180 
50 
63 
77 
79 
81 
16 
58 
63 
66 

121 

1188 


?3 




96 


Pilot Grove 


48 




^H 




45 


Emerald 

Blue Earth City 


91 

185 


Jo Daviess 


63 




63 




76 


Prf>soott 


79 




81 


Dunbar 


•?^, 




26 


.58 




63 


Guthrie 


9 
774 


67 




l-'l 


Totals 


1"09 







240 HISTOHY OF 

The election over, the victors of course, rejoiced- the beaten 
were disgusted and silent. "Points" won and although Mr. Brown, 
the homestead candidate for auditor was defeated, yet as Mr. Wake- 
field was the senatorial nominee of the homestead party and was 
elected, the other issue "no taxation of homesteads" also triumphed. 

The fight was made on the candidates for senator, representa- 
tive and auditor. "No homestead taxation" and "points" were 
united against "no points." As to the newspapers the Free Home- 
utead at Winnebago City favored "no points," and the Southtuest at 
Blue Earth City, sustained the homstead and "points" cause. 

The contest from the beginning, until the ballot box finally de- 
cided the issues, was very bitter and personal not only in this county, 
but throughout the legislative district. Both the county and the 
district were canvassed in their length and breadth, and every voter 
understood the issues. Party politics were entirely thrown aside, 
and democrat and republican, rallied shoulder to shoulder, on one 
side or the other of these local issues. 

Here is a story for politicians, taken from the Scientific Ameri 
can. "A man wanted to learn in what profession he would have his 
son engage. He put the boy in a room, with an apple, a Bible and a 
silver dollar. He left the room and decided that if upon his return 
he found the boy reading the Bible, he would make a minister of 
him. If he was eating the apple he should be a farmer, and if he 
had put the dollar in his pocket he should be a banker. When he 
returned he found the boy sitting on the Bible eating the apple, and 
had put the dollar in his pocket. What did he make of the boy? 
Well he made him a politician." 

THE END. 

The year 1866, like all preceding years, came to an end, having 
completed its full time. 

Notwithstanding the prophecies of "the end of the world," to 
occur this year, the earth regularly, as through countless years and 
centuries before, performed its diurnal revolutions, kept within its 
orbit and pursued its journey around the sun. The sun continued 
to shine, and the seasons to follow each other in their regular course 
and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. "For the prophecy 
came not in the old time by the will of man, but holy men of God 
spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." 

Many years after writing the foregoing sketch of the year 1866. 
the writer deemed it proper to add the following section. During 
the last three-quarters of a century and at least for a period dating 
back as far as the time of the great Millerite excitement of 1843, 
there has been a widely-spread opinion existing, not only among 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 241 

persons given to alarms, wonders and sensationalism, but also 
among many thoughtful, intelligent and conservative investigators, 
that we are living in the "last tiioes," or as has been variously ex- 
pressed or understood, that some great crisis in the affairs of man- 
kind is near at hand — that we are near the close of the Christian 
dispensation — that the final judgment "the judgment of the great 
day" is imminent — that we are near "the end of the world." And 
the proi^hecies of the second advent of Christ being so frequently 
and explicitly declared in the Scriptures, it is not remarkable that 
there should be found one or more religious bodies making that im- 
portant truth and the near approach of the final judgment — the de- 
struction of all material things — the end of the world, as they believe, 
and the duties of Christians, growing out of these facts if such they 
be, primary points in their religion beliefs. 

And considering these prophecies and the stupendious charac- 
ter of the events they foretold, and those which they purport to 
foretell as yet to occur, it is not strange that many persons through 
the past centuries and in the present times have sought to interpret 
these prophecies and determine the time of the second advent or 
"the end of the world," whatever that may signify. 

The wonder is that if the prophecies relating to this matter, can 
be interpreted, the subject has not attracted universal attention, for 
it is certainly a subject of universal and overwhelming interest. 

But there are many — far too many, indeed, who are of the class 
described in 2d Peter iii: 3, 4, and will be to the end of time itself. 



242 BJSTOny <iF 



CHAPTER XIII. 

A. D. 1867. 

And now tho thickeniniLj sky, 
Like a dark ceilinj,' stood; down rushed the rain 
Impetuous. 

— Milton. 

This year was one remarkable for scarcity of provisions, high 
prices of grain, railroad excitements, heavy rains, deep mud and 
high waters. 

During the winter of 1866 and 1867 there was a very heavy fall 
of snow. The winter commenced early in 1866 and lasted until late 
in the spring of this year. There was good sleighing during the 
first half of April. 

A GENERAL OFFICIAL OUTLOOK. 

During this year Andrew Johnson was president of the United 
States and William R. Marshall, governor of the State of Minnesota, 
Our United States senators were Alexander Ramsey and Daniel S. 
Norton, and our representative in congress was William Windom. 
James B. Wakefield, of this county, was our state senator, and A. 
Andrews, of Martin county, was our representative in the legisla- 
ture of the State. Horace Austin, of St. Peter, was the judge of 
this judicial district. 

And by reference to the history of our county government and 
of the several county offices — part third of this history — it appears 
that the boai'd of county commissioners was composed of the follow- 
ing named gentlemen: Henry J. Neal. chairman; J. R. Sisson. A. R. 
More, Sr., James Grays and J. Clagget. 

County Auditor— P. W. Cady. 

Treasurer — R. B. Johnson. 

Clerk of Court— John K. Pratt. 

Register — Frank Lent. 

County Attorney — J. H. Sprout. 

Judge of Probate — Amos Preston. 

Sheriff— C. E. Chaple. 

Superintendent of Schools — A. H. Polsey. 

Count Surveyor — J. R. Sisson. 

Coroner — W. A. Way. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 243 

THE ARBITERS OF THE COUNTY. 

On the first day of January, New Year's Day, the commissioners 
met in annual session, preferring, apparently, to attend to the func- 
tions of their high office than spend the day in the usual holiday 
observances. The board organized by electing Henry J. Neal chair- 
man for the year, and proceeded to business. 

Another session of the board was held on the 20th day of March, 
at which time a proposition was discussed in reference to the build- 
ing of a county jail, of the proportions of sixteen feet by twenty-four 
feet and one story high. 

OUR STATUTE MAKERS. 

The State legislature assembled January 8th and adjourned 
March 8th. 

The acts passed at this session, of special interest to the people 
of this county, were the following: An act authorizing the Minne- 
sota Valley Railroad Company (now the St. Paul and Sioux City), to 
build a branch road from Mankato, or some point near thereto, to 
the south line of Faribault county, by the way of Blue Earth City. 

An act approved February 25th, accepting the grant of lands 
by congress of July 4th, 1866, and vesting the same, subject to 
the provisions of the act of congress, in the Southern Minnesota 
Railroad Company, and subject to the further condition, that the 
"Said company should construct its road from its then western 
terminus, to the village of Preston, in Fillmore county, and fi'om 
thence to the village of Austin, in Mower county, to the village of 
Albert Lea, in Freeborn county, to the village of Blue Earth City 
in Faribault county, to the village of Fairmont, in Martin county, 
to the village of Jackson, in Jackson county, and thence to the 
west line of the State." 

The company was required to formally accept the grant with 
the conditions, within thirty days from the passage of the act. 

The company resisted the fixing of the points through which 
the road should be built, by all the influences they could bring to 
bear, but they were unsuccessful. Our members of the legislature, 
of course, with others along the line of the road, labored success- 
fully to secure this provision of the act, as it was upon this "point" 
question mainly, they had been elected the preceding fall, as will be 
remembered. The company, however, accepted the act with the 
conditions, within the time limited. 

The securing of the "jjoints provision" in the land was deemed 
a great triumpth by the "points-men" throughout the whole south. 
ern tier of counties. But, alas! How uncertain are many supposed 
certainties in human affairs. How often people rely upon and re- 
joice over what after all proves but a delusion. 



244 HISTORY or 

To make a long story short, it is sufficient to say that the road 
was never built on the line defined by the act, but tde county se- 
cured the road, however, on a more northern route. 

As above stated, James B. Wakefield in the Senate and A. An- 
drews in the House, were the members for this district in the legisla- 
ture of 1867. 

QUOTATIONS. 

The price of wheat early in February reached >>2. 14; oats. *1.00; 
potatoes, ^1.00 per bushel. Flour, $7.00 per hundred pounds and 
butter 25 cents jjer pound. These were high prices, but we were 
destined to see and pay still higher figures further along in the 
year. 

THE DELUGE. 

The snows of the winter began to go o£E about the middle of April, 
with heavy rains. In fact the spring was characterized all over 
the country by almost incessant and deluging rains, and was very 
late and cold. The streams became very high, and vast districts of 
country along the course of the great rivers were submerged, and 
much damage was done by the fioods. Bridges were swept awaj', all 
lowlands were overflowed, and the roads for a time were literally im- 
passable. During the sj^ring many cattle died of disease and short 
feed. Hay was very scarce, and the price went up to •i!7.00 per 
ton. High waters and rains accompanied by heavy storms con- 
tinued until the latter part of June. It was almost impossible to do 
the necessary seeding, and immigration and improvements were 
much retarded. To add to the general discomfort and distress, pro 
visions of all kinds, owing to the short crops of the previous year, 
became very scarce and high. Wheat, near harvest, sold at from 
$2.50 to §5.3.00 per bushel; oats, $1.00 per bushel; potatoes, §2 50 per 
bushel; ttour, $10.00 per hundred weight; pork, twenty-five cents 
per pound, and money was very scarce. 

Actual suffering existed in many localities in the county because 
of the want of the commonest articles of food. It was truthfully 
said that many of the poorer families in the country were compelled 
to subsist for weeks on a few coarse vegetables, such as rutabagas 
and turnips, and several instances were related in which several 
families subsisted upon rutabagas and coarse bran alone for weeks, 
and in some other instances on ground corn and potatoes. Relief to 
a limited extent was afforded in a number of the worst cases, but 
few were able to assist others. 

The state of distress at one time became so pressing that in cer- 
tain sections of the neighboring country the people, it was rumored, 
designed clubbing together and making a raid on the stores, gran- 
eries and mills in Blue Earth City, and take by force what they had 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 245 

not the means to bay. But it should not be thought that the resi- 
dents of the villages were insensible and selfish. The fact was that 
no one had anything to spare. Many in the villages were as desti- 
tute almost as those in the country, and all that could be done was 
done to assist the most needy. Aid, inthe way of food, clothing and 
seed grain was granted by the State, benevolent societies and indi- 
viduals, to the people of many of the frontier counties. 

During the high waters a boat came from East Chain Lakes, in 
Martin county, to Blue Earth City by way of Badger creek, and 
returned safely with several sacks of flour. This is the only known 
instance of the navigation of the Badger. Several boats also came 
from the same locality by way of Center creek and the Blue 
Earth river to Winnebago City, for supplies. 

SMALL TALK. 

We find the following announcements in the South West of June 
8th and 15th of this year: 

"Subscriptions are being received for building in this city a new 
steamer for the Cincinnati and New Orleans trade." 

"Nobody is prophesying a dry season this year. He may be a 
false prophet." 

"Navigation is now open by way of the Badger to Chain Lakes." 
"These statements are more valuable as showing the condition of 
the country than for their wit." 

As the rain ceased and the new crops of the year came into 
market the general distress was relieved, and matters assumed a 
more cheerful and encouraging aspect, but were still far from being 
entirely satisfactory. 

OUR NEWSPAPERS. 

On or about the 20th day of February the Free Homestead, at 
Winnebago City, changed proprietors, J. L. Christie retiring and 
E. A. Hotchkiss becoming the proprietor and editor of the paper. 
Mr. Christie says, good naturedly, in his brief valedictory, among 
other things, "And now kind friends and patrons, wishing you all a 
prosjDerous future, we bid you all a kind adieu, hoping you have no 
ill-will toward us and assuring you that we have none toward you." 
On assuming charge of the paper Mr. Hotchkiss writes, "The polit- 
ical character of the Homestead will not be changed, but remain ever 
ready to advocate the right and condemn the wrong, as it is viewed 
through republican glasses." 

About this time a novel idea seems to have seized the editor of 
the South West. In the issue of March 2d, of that paper, there ap- 
pears on the first page some twenty-six revival hymns, and the tenth 
chapter of St. John's gospel in full. It was certainly a very curious 



246 HISTOIiY OF 

newspaper page and attracted considerable attention. Did the 
editor suppose that this matter would be considered "news" to the 
benighted people of this region? 

While treating of newspapers it may be well to state that the 
first convention of newspaper editors ever held in Minnesota met 
during the month of February, of this year, at St. Paul, at which 
time the Minnesota Editorial Association was formed. A large 
number of delegates were present and the convention was in every 
way a perfect success. The Homestead says: 

"The citizens of St. Paul nobly responded to the efforts of the city press to 
make the guests welcnnie. The novcrndr (,'ave a receiitioo, the mayor took 
them in, the senate invited tlieiii wilhin the bar, the doors of the Opera house 
were opened, hotel proprietors presented rare bills of fare, and an artist offered 
to photot'raph the whole lot, free." 

ho! for MONTANA. 

In the early part of the year, considerable public interest was 
created in this county and elsewhere throughout the State, in con- 
sequence of the organization in this State, of what was known as 
"The Great Overland Expedition to Montana." by Capt. P. B. Davy, 
of this county. Montana was supposed to be rich in the precious, 
metals — a new California — and many desired to go to this new 
El Dorado. But the journey was a long one, and somewhatperilous 
and hence the organization of this expedition, which provided a 
comparatively cheap and safe way of reaching the land of gold. 
The expedition, when tinally made up, consisted of about seven 
hundred souls, and included some seventy families, about one- half 
of the whole number, however, were destined ultimately for the 
Willamette Valley, Oregon Territory. 

The company with its great train of one hundred and thirty 
wagons and other conveyances, left Minneapolis, Minn., on the long 
journey, near the middle of May. The expedition reached Port 
Abercrombie about the 1st of July, Port Stevenson about August 1st, 
and proceeded thence by way of Port Buford, near the mouth of 
the Yellow Stone river, to Port Benton, the head of navigation on 
the Missouri. Here the company divided, about one-half proceed- 
ing on the way to Oregon, the other portion pursuing the route to 
Helena, Montana, the objective point, which place was reached 
the middle of September. 

The expedition was conducted through without loss of life, or 
serious accident, and was in the main a success. In December fol- 
lowing Capt. Davy returned to this State and immediately began the 
organization of a large company for the exploration of the Black 
Hills of Dakota, to which some reference will be made hereafter. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 247 

THE COURT. 

The June term of the district court was adjourned until the 
21st day of October, the Judge assigning as one reason for the ad- 
journment, "the backwardness of the season." A term of five days 
was held in October, and quite a number of causes were heard and 
disposed of by the court. 

They have a curious way of deciding law-suits in Siam. Both 
parties are put under cold water, and the one staying longest wins 
the suit. It is different here. In this country, both parties are got 
into hot water, and then kept there as long as possible. The re- 
sult is about the same. 

THE COMMISSIONERS. 

On the 26th day of June, the commissioners again met and 
among other business ti-ansacted, we find the granting of licenses to 
run ferry boats on the Blue Earth river. One ferry was established 
at Latimer's Ford, and one at Dunham's Ford As being of some in- 
terest and possibly useful in similar cases occurring hereafter, it is 
well to state the rate of tolls which was established at this time. 
Here is the schedule: 

One pair of horses or oxen and wagon Fifty cents. 

One horse and buggy Twenty-five cents. 

One horse and rider Twenty cents. 

One footman Ten cents. 

The chairman of the board was authorized to grant licenses and 
fix tolls thereafter. 

The board met again September 3d, but, either not caring for 
history, or having nothing of importance to do, they did nothing 
worthy of being rescued from oblivion. 

"LIBERTY FOREVER." 

And now we have to record a singular fact. It does not appear 
that our nation's birthday was celebrated in this county in 1867. 
Indeed the editor of the South West announced in his paper that, "on 
account of the lateness of the season, the 4th of July has beea post- 
poned." 

THE HUSBANDMAN'S REWARD. 

The harvest was light. The grain was not all cut even as late 
as the 28th of August, and then nearly all of it had yet to be stacked. 
Much of the wheat was blighted this year, especially that grown on 
corn ground. The corn crop was not a good one. 

THE NATIONAL GAME. 

It was in this year, 1867 that the new National game of baseball 
was introduced into this county, and for many years after was the 



248 HISTOIiV OF 

great game of the young men and boys. Games of ball had existed 
long previous to this, but they were only simple affairs. This new 
game of ball was made up upon new and scientific principles and 
was conducted according to strict regulations. Base ball clubs, 
under the new system, were organized everywhere throughout the 
United States, and some of these clubs acquired a national reputa- 
tion because of their great skill and success. There were also 
National and State organizations. Clubs of professionals traveled 
great distances to meet others in match games, in which as much 
interest was felt by certain classes as in the great horse races and 
trotting matches. A notable game was played at Blue Earth City, 
in this county, on the 30th day of August, of this year, between the 
Blue Earth City club and the Frontier club of Mankato. The "Fron- 
tiers" did not win the game. They came up in great style, but the 
country "Jakes" were too much for them. Each club, according to 
the regulations, had its officers, and when playing match games 
usually were dressed in a close, neat fitting and picturesque uniform. 
The game required nine men on a side — the captain, who was the 
catcher; the pitcher, the short stop, first, second and third base, the 
right field, the center field and the left field. There was also an 
umpire who decided all disputes, and a scorer who kept the count. 
Changes are made occasionally in the regulations, but the above 
outline coustitutes the basis arrangement. 

Ball clubs have been formed in all the villages and in most of 
the townships of the county, and match games between the various 
clubs were quite frequent for some years, especially on great public 
days, as the Fourth of July, and afforded a great deal of amuse- 
ment. Cracked heads, disjointed fingers and bruised shins, were 
often among the haps and mishaps of hardly contested games. Very 
novel matches were gotten up sometimes, to the great amusement 
of the spectators, such for instance as a game between the "heavy 
nines," usually composed of the heaviest men of the locality, and 
the "small nines," made up of small boys. It is a remarkable 
fact, never yet satisfactorily accounted for on any well-established 
philosophical principles, that in these matches the boys always con- 
trived to win the game, and inflict more or less misery of various 
kinds on the other side. 

It may be further added that each ball club assumed a name by 
which it was known and addressed, as the White Stockings, the Red 
Stockings, the Blue Jackets, the Innocents, the Greentops, the Yell- 
hards and like apt titles. 

Of late years the interest in this once great game has much sub- 
sided, and in many sections of the country, especially in this county, 
the clubs have ceased to exist, but will doubtless be revived again. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 249 

THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

There is but little to write of the proceedings of the agricultural 
society for this year, and that little may all be expressed in this one 
paragraph. There was a meeting of the society held at Blue Earth 
City, July li7th, at which time a list of premiums was drawn up. 
Early in September, L. W. Brown, president, offered in behalf of the 
society, a premium of fifteen dollars to any ball club in the State 
which would win the prize in a game to be played on the last day of 
the annual fair. 

The fair was held at Blue Earth City on the 25th and 26th days 
of September. The weather was fine, but the fair was not a great 
success. 

BIG TALK. 

Some of the subjects of public interest and discussion, during 
the year, were the following: 

In February: The passage, by congress, of the military gov- 
ernment bill, for the southern states. 

In March: The appointment of military governors, to various 
districts in the South; the purchase of Alaska from Russia. 

In May: The admission to bail of the arch-traitor, Jeff. Davis. 

In June: The shooting, in Mexico, of the invader, Maximilian. 

In September: The dedication of the national cemetery at 
Antietam. 

In December: The organization of the Patrons of Husbandry, 
or Farmers' Grange, at Washington, D. C. ; the commencement of 
proceedings to impeach President Johnson. 

THE CLAMOR FOR OFFICE. 

The election of a governor and several other State officers, 
added somewhat to the interest of the campaign this fall. 

The candidates for governor were Wm. R. Marshall, republican, 
and Chas. E. Flandrau, democrat. A proposed adjustment of the 
State railroad bonds and several amendments to the constitutonwere 
to be voted upon. 

The Republican County Convention was held at Blue Earth City, 
on the 25th day of September. The following nominations were 
made. 

For Treasurer — R. B. Johnson. 

For Sheriff— F. F. Harlow. 

For Judge of Probate — A. F. De La Vergne. 

For County Attorney — J. H. Sprout. 

For Coroner — A. J. Rose. 

For Court Commissioner — A. F. De La Vergne. 



250 HI STORY OF 

The Republican Legislative District Convention was held at 
Fairmont, Martin county, on the 2d day of October, and nominated 
for re election, as representative, A. Andrews, of that county. 

Several days lator another legislative convention was held at 
Winnebago City, in the interest of the "No-pointers," and nominated 
A. B. Colton, of Martin county, for representative. 

The democracy, rallying from their lethargy, held a district 
and county convention at Blue Earth City, on the 12th day of 
October, and made the following nominations. 

R. B. Simmons, for Representative. 

Silas Richardson, for Sheriff. 

C. M. Sly, for Treasurer. 

G. B. Kingslej', for County Attorney. 

D. H. Morse, for Coroner. 

The only issue in this campaign besides that of general politics 
was that of "points" or "no jioints," and the main contest was, of 
course, upon the office of representative. 

The law had established the "points," and the railroad company 
had accepted the grant of lands with the "i^oints" fixed, it is true, but 
the company alleged that they could not and would not build the 
road through the points named, and that unless the "points" condition 
was removed the building of the road would be indefinitely delayed 
or entirely defeated. The "points" party held that the public con- 
venience and "the greatest good to the greatest number," required 
the road to be built through the points named, and that it could be 
as easily built on that line as on any other, hence the "no pointers" 
sought to elect a representative favorable to removing this restric- 
tion, the other party to retaining it. 

The election was held on the 5th day of November. The fol- 
lowing table exhibits the vote in this county: 

For Governor— W. R. Marshall 919 

Chas. E. Flandrau 301 

For Representative— A. Andrew."! 583 

A. B. ColtoD 502 

R. K Simmons 104 

For Judge of Probate— A. F. De La Vergne 955 

ForSherilT—F. F. Harlow 903 

S. Richardson 301 

For Treasurer— R. B. Johnson 941 

C. M.Sly 277 

For County Attorney— J. H. Sprout 887 

G. B. Kingsley 328 

For Court Commissioner— A. F. De La Vergne 952 

For Coroner— A. J. Rose 917 

D. 11. Morse 296 

H. J. Neal was elected county commissioner for district No. 2, 
and W. J. Robinson for district No. 3. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 251 

The remainder of the legislative district gave Mr. Colton a ma- 
jority sufficient to elect him representative, and this was a triumph 
for the "no pointers." 

STAMP TAXES AND LICENSE FEES. 

The reader will remember how odious Stamp Acts were held to 
be by the people of this country in our early history. 

In 1765 an attempt was made by Great Britain to levy a tax on 
the colonies in this manner. It will be remembered, also, how earn- 
estly Benjamin Franklin, then in London, labored to prevent the 
passage of the act, and how Samuel Adams, the ''Father of the Revo- 
lution," denounced this act; how the indignation of the people 
blazed out when they heard of the passage of the act. because of its 
gross injustice, and how the "Sons of Liberty, "in Boston demolished 
the building where the stamps were to be sold. A similar spirit at 
the time prevailed over the whole country. This obnoxious act was 
repealed the next year. 

But times and circumstances and hard necessities, alter cases. 
During the great rebellion — 1861-5 — stamp duties or taxes were laid 
by our general government on almost every form of legal instrument, 
and other papers of value, and on packages of a great variety of 
manufactured articles, some of which still continue to be imposed. 
The stamps were of various sizes, values and devices and resembled 
our postage stamps. License fees were also charged on various oc- 
cupations and pursuits. The object of all this was, of course, to aid 
in the raising of revenue to support the government and pay the 
enormous expenses of the war. There was but little opposition to 
this form of taxation, among the loyal people. Stamp duties on legal 
instruments, and license fees on occupations continued for a number 
of years after the war, and were in full force at this time, but were 
finally I'epealed, except on some manufactured articles as above 
stated. 

We state here some of the more common stamp duties and li- 
cense fees required by law, as a matter of interest to the generation 
which has come upon the stage of action since the war: 

Agreement or contract, in writing, each sheet $ .05 

Bank check or draft 02 

Promissory note, per each SlOO or fraction 05 

Bond of indemnity, for each $1,000 or fraction 50 

Bond of executor, administrator or guardian, where the property exceeded 

$1,000 in value 1. 00 

Official bonds 1.00 

Deeds, conveying lands, consideration under $500, 50 cts. Consideration 

$1,000, $1.00 and each $500 additional or fraction thereof 50 

Life insurance policy for less than $1,000 25 

Exceeding $1,000 and not execeeding $5,000 50 

Fire Insurance policy, not exceeding $10.00 premium 10 



252 HISTORY OF 

Not exceedinjrSoOOO 25 

Leases, rental $H00 per annum or less 50 

Mortgages of real or personal estate, same as deeds. 

Power of attorney to sell lands 1 .00 

Probate of will, value of estate over 81,000 and not exceeding $2,000. $1.00 

and every additional $1,000 or fraction thereof 50 

Receipt for money paid, over $20.00 02 

Trust deed, as security, same as a mortgage. 

License fees on occupations, etc. 

Lawyers, $10.00; physicians JIO. 00; claim agents, $10.00; insurance agents, 

$10.00, and many other occupations— like fees. 

LOOKING HEAVENWARD. 

On November 14th of this year, a remarkable meteoric shower 
was witnessed in the United States, of which Prof. Loomis. of New 
Haven, Conn., gives the following account: 

"A display of shooting-stars occurred this morning, and attained its great- 
est magniflcence about 4:30 o'clock. I counted 500 meteors alone in one hour, 
which would indicate about 2,000 per hour for the entire heavens, and that, too, 
in the presence of a full moon, which probably eclipsed two-thirds of the whole 
number. So far as the numbers are concerned, the exhibition was, therefore, 
more remarkalile than that seen in Europe last November, and was but little 
inferior to that seen in the United States in 1833." 
"What eye can pass Him over, 
Spreading aloft in the clear night? Him (God), flrst. 
Whoever scans the heavens is sure to trace." 

Nothing further remains to be said of the history of this year. 
It was one of the least eventful, least interesting and least profit- 
able, in the history of the county. The times during the whole year 
were, taking all things together, very discouraging to all classes of 
people, especially the farmers. Many were gloomy, lost their en- 
ergies and felt as though their labors and efforts were in vain. Such 
seasons of despondency and fear of difficulties ahead come to all 
sometimes, whatever their station in life may be. and is a very un- 
happy and unprofitable condition, from whatever cause discourage- 
ment may come. It is never best, in any of the proper ways of life, 
or business, to lose hope or abandon effort and it would be well if 
every one should know and oft repeat the following golden words 
of the poet, so apt. truthful, practical: 

"The wise and active conquer difflculties 
l>y dariwj to allempt them; Sloth and folly 
Shiver and shrink at sight of toil and hazard, 
And make the impossibility they fear.'' 



FARIBAULT COUNTY. MINNESOTA. 253 



CHAPTER XIV. 

A. D. 1868 

In this historic panorama of the year, as it passes in I'eview 
before us, we at last behold, high up on the canvas, the emblazoned 
figures 1868. What of this almost forgotten year? How little any 
one remembers definitely of the events of any past year. Two or 
three personal incidents makes up the sum total. All other events 
are vague and uncertain and may belong to a year, two or three years 
before, or after. But for the historian's labor the events of the 
past, however important would soon, in the lapse of time, become 
mere traditions in which truth and fable are indistinguishable, and 
they constantly growing more uncertain, would at last pass forever 
from the memory of man. 

In recounting the events of this year, a proper regard for our 
local legislative body and the order of incidents as to time, requires 
the statement that our county commissioners assembled on the 7th 
day of January and had a session of four days. All the further ac- 
tions of the board at this session, which it is needful to record here, 
is that Henry J. Neal was reelected chairman, and it was decided 
to let the contract for building the county jail, a much-needed im- 
provement in the light of public economy. 

The board met again on the 10th and 11th days of February, 
but did nothing of importance, but reject a number of exorbitant bids 
for building the jail. Other meetings of the board were held March 
10th, June 12th and Sept. 1st, but the business done was of no 
special interest. 

A CONVENTION. 

Though somewhat out of the order of events, it may be noted 
here that on the 25th day of January, a convention of homestead 
men was held at Blue Earth City, of which John A. Dean was chair- 
man. In view of the demand of the "homesteaders," that further 
action be had by the legislature, then in session, in relation to tax- 
ation of homestead claims, the party at this convention was re- 
organized, a number of bylaws were adopted for the government of 
the society, and the name "The Free-Homestead Society of Faribault 
County," was adopted. This convention meant to accomplish some- 
thing for the relief of homestead men, as will be seen hereafter, they 



254 HISTORY OF 

eventually succeeded. This convention much assisted in hastening 
certain legislation mentioned hereafter. 

Let us now look towards the Capitol of the State where the 
legislature was in session and see what was being done for the good 
of the ])eople by 

THE LYCURGUSES. 

The State Legislature of this year which assembled January 7th 
and adjourned March Gth, jiassed several acts having a direct re- 
lation to this county. The titles of these acts were as follows: 

An act to provide for the payment of certain taxes by the town 
of Grant (Rome), in Faribault county. 

An act to locate, survey and establish a State road from Blue 
Earth City, in Faribault county, via Fairmont, in Martin county, to 
Jackson, in Jackson county This road was subsequently surveyed 
and established. 

An act to authorize the towns in Fillmore, Mower, Freeborn, 
Faribault, Martin and Jackson counties, to issue bonds to aid in the 
construction of any railroads running into, or through said counties. 
Under the provisions of this act, most of the towns in this county, 
at one time or another, voted to issue bonds, in various amounts, to 
aid in the construction of railroads in the county, as may be seen 
more fully by reference to the history of the several townships. 

An act to provide for the taxation of improvements on home- 
stead claims, made under the act of congress approved May 20th, 
1862, entitled "An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the 
public domain, and the interest of claimants in such claims." 

Bj' this law all improvements on homestead claims were re- 
quired to be assessed and taxed, but section 4 enacted that "no tax 
shall be assessed or levied on any lands, held or occupied by set- 
tlers under said act of congress, other than on improvements made 
on the same, and the interest of the claimant therein, so long as the 
fee of the same remains in the United States.."' 

This act was passed to satisfy the demands of the homestead 
settlers of the State who objected, as we have already seen, to the 
taxation of their homestead claims. 

In this connection it should be stated that on the first day of 
February, Mr Wakefield, senator from this district, introduced in the 
senate: "A bill for an act to compel the county auditors of the sev- 
eral counties of the State to strike from the several tax duplicates, 
certain taxes therein named." Section first enacted, that the county 
auditorsof the several counties of the State are hereby required to 
strike from the several tax duplicates for the year 1867, and the sev- 
eral delinquent tax lists for previous years, all taxes upon lands en- 
tered under the act of congress, entitled an act to secure homesteads 
to actual settlers, etc , approved May 20th, 1862, when such taxes 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 255 

have been levied upon such lands prior to the time the person or 
persons entering the same, were entitled to receive a patent or pat- 
ents therefor. Section second enacted, "such lands shall not be 
subject to taxation for any purpose prior to the time that the per- 
sons entering the same, may be entitled to patents therefor, from 
the United States." 

During the first days of February many petitions were circulated 
through the county and were numerously signed, praying the State 
legislatui'e to pass Mr. Wakefield's bill. The bill passed the Senate 
but failed in the House, and the act above referred to relating to the 
taxation of improvements on homesteads became the law of the State. 
That act at first sight, appeared in the main satisfactory but as con- 
strued for a time subsequently, proved a delusion as much as a re- 
lief measure. It was very much as though a stone had been given 
when bread had been asked. All improvements upon the home- 
stead ••and the Interest of the claimant therein, so long as the fee of 
the same remains in the United States," being assessed, taxed and 
held as personal property, the last cow of the homestead settler 
could be taken as in all other cases of personal property taxes for 
the payment of the tax. And the payment of the tax, too, being per- 
sonal, was imperative, and more immediate than if assessed as a land 
tax. But the act was the best and in fact all that could be obtained 
of the legislature at that time, and was construed differently from 
the intention of many of the makers of the law. It may also be stated 
here incidently, that an act was also passsed, approved March 4th, 
relieving the Southern Minnesota Railroad Company from building 
their road to two "points" "Preston" and "Austin," named in the 
bill granting them the lands, and although this action had no direct 
reference to this county, it was the first and most important step 
towards the removal of all the points. 

James B.Wakefield, of this county, in the Senate, and A. B. Col- 
ton, of Martin county, in the House, represented this district in the 
legislature of 1868. 

SOWING THE SEED. 

The spring of this year opened about the 20th of March, and 
seeding was done as early as the 23d of March. All the seeding 
was done early, and the weather continued quite favorable until the 
24th day of April, when quite a snow storm occurred. 

In view of the short crops of the two preceding years, a greater 
breadth of land was seeded this year than ever before, every availa- 
ble acre being put under cultivation. The farmers were encour- 
aged to hope for good prices, as wheat, in May, brought two dollars 
per bushel, and the fact was that prices during the whole year ruled 
very favorably to the farmers. 



256 HISTOltY OF 

TOPICS OF THE TIME. 

On the 24th day of February the House of Representatives of 
the United States adopted articles of impeachment of Andrew John 
son. President of the United States, whicli event created great com- 
motion in political circles, and much interest throughout the countrj'. 
It is not proper here to discuss what, in that day, were known as 
"the reconstruction measures." the "my policy," of the President, 
nor the President's conduct, in the exercise of the functions of hi."* 
high office; they are simply alluded to here, as showing the subjects 
of public interest at the time, and in reference to the impeachment 
proceedings it is sufficient to say. that a trial before the Senate of 
the United States, sitting as a High Court of Impeachment was had. 
which terminated May 16th. The vote stood thirty five for im- 
peachment, and nineteen against. The law required a two-thirds 
vote to impeach, and the vote cast for impeachment lacked one of 
the requisite number. 

Another subject of much public interest at the time, was the 
overland expedition to the Black Hills of Dakota, projected by 
Capt. P. B. Davy, a resident of this county, and which created con- 
siderable excitement through Ihe county and State during the 
spring of this year. There was very good evidence that great 
mineral wealth existed in that wonderful tract of country, gold, 
silver, copper, iron, coal, besides immense forests of pine timber, 
and the object of the expedition was, as stated by the projector of the 
enterprise, "to open up that beautiful and fertile region to settle- 
ment and cultivation, and establish in her rich valleys a thriving 
and energetic people, who will bring to light the weight of her 
slumbering wealth and prospect her yet undeveloped and compara- 
tively unknown mines." 

Many agencies where established throughout the State for the 
purpose of affording information as to the objects of the enterprise, 
and facilities for joining the company. The expedition was gotten 
up on a large scale, and it was designed that the various detach- 
ments should leave the State about the 20th of May, and all gather 
at Yankton, D. T.. the place of general rendezvous, from whence 
the line of march would be taken up early in .June, for the Hills. 

But when the expedition was about organized, it was counter- 
manded by the general government, on the ground that the terri- 
tory of country known as the Black Hills had been reserved for 
the occupancy of the Indians, and all others were forbidden to tres- 
pass upon it. and consequently this whole project had to be aban- 
doned. 

It is hardly necessary to observe at this day. that the subse- 
quent opening and settlement of that region, which occurred in 



FABIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 257 

latei' years, have abundantly proved the correctness of the previous 
conjectures and statements as to the great mineral wealth of the 
country. 

In connection with the Black Hills project, a pamphlet of 
twenty-eight pages was published at the South West office, in April 
of this year, under the supervision of Capt. Davy, containing an 
elaborate notice of the exi3edition and its objects, and containing, 
also, an article descriptive of Blue Earth City and Faribault county. 
Soon after harvest following, when the expedition had been aban- 
doned, another pamphlet of twenty-eight pages, more fully descrip- 
tive of the county, gotten up by Capt. Davy, with the assistance of 
several other residents of Blue Earth City, was published at the Soutli 
West printing office, for general distribution throughout the Eastern 
states and Canada. These publications constituted the first, and it 
may be said the last efforts, until late years, beyond a few newspaper 
articles, to afford information, to the world at lai-ge, of the character 
of this county, its natural advantages for settlement, and to induce 
immigration. 

Another topic of much interest at this time, with the people 
generally, was the building of the Southern Minnesota Railroad. 
Its progress was closely watched. When it should reach this county, 
if ever, was a matter of considerable discussion. At this time, and 
for several years, Waseca, in Waseca county, on the line of the 
Winona and St. Peter Railroad, was the great grain and lumber 
market of this region of country. An immense traffic was done over 
the roads leading from this county to that place. Long trains of 
from ten to thirty or more teams — farmers' wagons and the carry- 
alls of the regular teamsters, were almost daily passing back and 
forth, hauling out grain and bringing back lumber, merchandise, 
etc. A number of stopping places on the line became quite famous 
hostelries for a number of years — Barber's and Schoffman's at Min- 
nesota Lake; Hill's, Caster's, Larrabee's, the taverns at Wilton, are 
still remembered. Many an adventure, incident and joke of the road, 
occurring in those days, are still told by those who journeyed to 
and fro. 

THE TRIBUNAL. 

On the 2d day of June, the District Court commenced its annual 
term, Hon. Horace Austin, presiding. The term was a very import- 
ant one and lasted nine days. A large calendar was disposed of, but 
none of the cases were of public interest. Some of the cases, how- 
ever, involved the decision of a number of very difficult legal 
points. Owing to "the smooth tongues of the lawyers and the thick 
heads of the jui-ors," several suitors were greatly surprised at the 



258 IIISTOItY OF 

outcome of what they thought just causes, and were led to solilo- 
quise with Shakespeare: 

"In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt; ^ 

But, being season'd with a ^rracious voice, 
Obscures the show of evil?' 

THE FIRST CIRCUS AND MENAGERIE. 

Whatever may be thought or said of the moral aspects and in- 
fluences of the circus or menagerie, or both combined, it is a fact 
that at this day, these great travelling shows have become a great 
American institution and their annual visits, during the summer 
months, are as regular and as much expected by almost all classes 
of people in the cities and in the towns and villages of the country, 
as the Fourth of July, and they are generally woU patronized. 

The first of these great shows which appeared in this county 
was announced as "Orton Brothers Egyptian Caravan and Great 
South American Circus," and exhibited at Blue Earth City, on the 
18th day of June of this year. 

It proceeded thence to Winnebago City, where it entertained 
the people the next day. The attendance at both places was quite 
large. 

The blazeing show bills of this institution, posted up for weeks 
before and studied and canvassed in all their attractions by the boys, 
employed the gorgeous rhetoric usual in such cases, and read in 
about the following glowing words: 

The most gigantic and magnificent combination of equestrian 
and artistic talent, with the most interesting and prodigious collec- 
tion of wonderful animals ever seen on the face of the globe ! I 

A colossal canvas confederation ! ! 

A dazzling and illimitable collection of art, 

Animal and arenic splendors ! ! 

A whole world carnival of super-best, free sensations, a mighty 
miracle of golden glory 1 I 

Many an aged reader of this brief sketch will call to remem- 
brance what happiness the coming of a great show gave him in 
his boyhood's years — how he would lie awake most of the night, pre- 
ceding the day of the circus, full of imaginations, conjectures and 
anticipations — how early he would awake the morning of that gi-eat 
day, and, perhaps, with many others of his age, probably barefooted 
and without breakfast, as the writer himself did on more than one 
occasion during his hopeful youth, go out miles on the road to meet 
the coming show— how the elephants and camels were inspected, how 
the wagons were viewed and numbered, with what awe and envy 
the drivers were regarded, and everything noted, and how proudly 
he marched with the possession to town — then watching the putting 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 259 

up of the great tents, and the final culmination of it all, the great 
exhibition itself. Life as we all know in the country towns and vil- 
lages, brings but few such genuine, compact masses of real happi- 
ness to the stout, healthy and active boy, as the great tented show. 
Perhaps but few of the readers of this article ever heard the 
showman's battle cry: "Hey Rube!" "Hey Rube!" "Hey Rube!" 

It has been heard, occasionally, of late years, but not often, 
especially in the northern states. It is a cry of awful import, and 
'is never uttered, except in the last extremity, and then and always, 
it means, desperate fighting, blood and death. This is the rallying 
cry of the showmen when they are attacked by roughs and mobs, 
and there appears no other way than by fighting to protect them- 
selves and their property. 

In the showmans' literature it a^jpears that these desperate en- 
counters have occurred most frequently in the rough, border towns 
of the southern states, but they have been known, also, at various 
places in the North. It is, of course, the interest of showmen to 
avoid such collisions, and it is seldom, though sometimes, their fault 
that such fights arise. They are almost always made in self defense, 
and are often bloody contests. 

Such a fight occurred at Jacksonville. Texas, yeax-s ago, when 
twenty-three of the mob were killed and over fifty wounded — at a 
town in Arkansas where three were killed, many wounded on both 
sides, and a tent cut to pieces — at Somersett, Ky., where twenty 
were killed and many injured — ac Cartersville, Ga., three roughs 
were killed — at Plymouth, Ind., where many were wounded. These 
are but a few of the instances of this character which may be named. 
All of the old show companies have had some experiences of this 
kind — the elder Forepaugh, Robinsons, O'Brien, Dan Rice, Coup, 
Noyes, Barnum and others. 

Sitting as a spectator in the grand pavilions of the large com- 
bined circuses and menageries of these modern days, and contem- 
plating the scenes — the multitudes of interested people, the wonder- 
ful exhibitions presented by the trained knights of the sawdust 
arena, feats of strength, agility of trained muscles, the marvelous 
leaping, balancing, riding, the dangerous feats of the flying trapeze, 
all, apparently, setting the laws of nature at defiance, one is amazed 
at beholding what the trained human being and dumb animals are 
capable of. 

Yet, in some things, improvements might well be made — the 
clown's jokes are growing old. 

The camel stood quietly chewing and contemplating the scenes 
with lofty contempt, when he might have been heard to say, "The 
pyramids, the date palm, myself and the clown's jokes, are the only 



260 irrsTO/:)- of 

things remaining on earth that are really venerable and worthy of 
respect; all elso is modern and worthless." 

But, after all, many of the wonderful performances exhibited 
at these shows, and others far more startling, were performed in 
their day, by actors who have been dead for nearly two thousand 
years. 

Witnessing these scenes, the mind involuntarily wanders back 
to the days of ancient Greece and the Olympic games, the jumping, 
running, boxing, javalin throwing and chariot races, and to the 
days of the great Roman circuses at Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria 
and other great towns of the Empire, but especially to the Circus 
Maximus and the colosseum of old pagan Rome, the capital of the 
world. 

Here tens of thousands assembled on the great show days, to 
witness the scenes. Seated safely high up, but over or near the 
stone and iron dens of hundreds of ferocious wild beasts, the spec- 
tators viewed scenic exhibitions of unprecedented splendor in the 
vast arena before them; mighty contests of gladiators with each 
other, or with wild beasts, to the death; the frightful conflicts of 
great numbers of savage beasts turned into the arena; great feats 
of horsemanship, acrobatic performances and chariot races, arous- 
ing the enthusiasm of the multitudes to madness, and perhaps, last 
of all the exciting scenes of these great shows, came the infernal 
culminating act, before which the angels in heaven veiled their 
faces, the martyrdom of Christian men and women, who in those 
ages of terrible persecutions, would not deny their Lord, and were 
often driven naked, or rather clothed only in a halo of purity, inno- 
cence and devotion, or of sanctified manhood and womanhood, into 
the arena and there kneeling on the bloody sands awaited the death 
decreed for them. Death by what means, reader":* Do you hear 
the grating and rumbling of the huge iron doors opening not far 
away, and the howling, roaring, shrieking and bellowing of the half 
starved and ferocious wild beasts, as they bound into the arena and 
in savage eagerness and fury rush to the feast? Now hide your face 
and muffle your ears, for this scene is not to be witnessed by enlight- 
ened or Christian men, but only by devils and degraded pagan hu- 
manity. And when you recall these things do not forget to thank 
God that you live in an age when such scenes are impossible, an age 
whose beneficence has been achieved by the blood of the martyrs 
and the sufferings of the patriots of many centuries. 

"THE GLORIOUS FOURTH." 

This ever memorable day was celebrated at Blue Earth City. 
The day was fine and the attendance of the people commendable. 
Geo. B. Kingsley read the Declaration and Capt. P. B. Davy was the 
orator of the occasion. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 261 

There was also a grand celebration of the day at Winnebago 
City. It was estimated that some 1,500 people were present. Here 
A. C. Dunn was the reader of the Declaration and Prof. E. P. Bart- 
lett delivered the oration, which was subsequently published in the 
Homestead. 

At the grove of J. Chestnut, in the town of Guthrie, four Sun- 
day schools, and others numbering in all about four hundred peo- 
ple, assembled to do honor to the day, and here the Declaration was 
read by the Rev. Mr. Foss, and addresses were delivered by Jos. 
Claggett and J. Gleason. Altogether the demonstrations this year 
were a fitting recognition of the birthday of the best government 
the world has yet seen, as the orators of the day usually state, a 
government which has given the greatest amount of happiness and 
success to the masses of its people, which has given equal advan- 
tages to the rich and poor, exalted labor, made all proper stations 
in life honorable and the highest stations attainable to all. 

The following anecdote, an actual occurrence, may be appropri- 
ate right here. 

There is a lawyer, yet living, who some years ago was waited 
upon by a committee from a small village, for the purpose of engag- 
ing him to deliver a Fourth of July oration. When they asked him 
his price, he said he considered $25.00 cheap enough. 

"Mercy on me!" exclaimed the chairman, "but we caa't pay no 
such price as that! That must be for a regular Henry Clay oration." 

"Well, yes. 1 think it will compai'e favorably with anything 
Henry got off." 

"Oh! but we can't stand it — we must have a cheaper one." 

"How cheap?" 

"Not over §5.00. We'll give you §5.00, your dinner and all the 
lemonade you can drink for the cheapest oration in your head." 

"I'll do it!" replied the lawyer, and the money was paid him on 
the spot. 

He was on hand on the glorious day, and by andbye the pro- 
cession moved to the grove, the orator took the stand and was in- 
troduced, and without any fooling around he walked to the front 
and said: 

"Fellow countrymen: We whipped England twice and can do it 
again. We whipped Mexico once and can repeat that sport. We are 
a free people. This is the glorious Fourth. Give 'em hail Colum- 
bia, and go in for a good time. Thanks for your attention." 

He had given them a !?5.00 oration and every person in the crowd, 
except one, was perfectly satisfied. An old lady followed the orator 
around— she was a Boston woman — until she had cornered him, and 
then expressed her disgust by saying: 



262 Hisronv or 

"Seems ter me, that if j-er mont to please this 'ere crowd, you 
would'nt have chopped off that air speech without a single word 
about the 'tea party,' and Bunker Hill and the Pilgrims. You 
don't know nothing." 

These well attended gatherings of the people, from year to 
year, are not only an indication of some inherent patriotic impulses, 
but of something more— the love of a day of association, .social en- 
joyment and entertainment. It is certainly a mistaken view of life 
that happiness and success are to be found at the present, or some 
future day, in a hard, perpetual devotion to labor and pinching 
economy and miserly saving. Such a life is apt to grow narrow 
and dark. The individual becomes selfish, sordid, censurous, mor- 
bid and unjust. The trite old saying is true, that "All work and no 
play makes Jack a dull boy." 

While all should be industrious, energetic in their callings, and 
not wasteful, it appears to be the better view to take of life, that we 
should often unbend, relax from labor for a time and seek amuse- 
ment and recreation, even if it does cost something. 

Life at best, for the great majority of the race, is not long, and 
the time of its end is uncertain, and it is not best to wait until some 
future day when we shall gel rich or become too old to work, but 
take life's rational pleasures as we go along. 

Though there is somewhat of sorrow, many disappointments, 
tix'esome toil and causes of grief in most lives, it is better to be 
cheerful and make the best of what we cannot avoid, than to be al- 
ways sad and gloomy. It is better to look on the bright side of things, 
the hopeful side, even if we cannot always give much of a reason for 
it, than it is to be forever looking on the dark side. There is much 
on every hand to enjoy. The earth itself is beautiful, grand, won- 
derful, and the natural conditions of the seasons and of bountiful 
productions and climate and scenery, wherever civilized man can live, 
are generally beneficent. What is bad is commonly the result of 
man's abuse of what is good, and it is not the product of nature. And 
while it is true that there are some bad, selfish, discourteous people 
in the world, it is also true that there are many intelligent, frank, 
generous,hospitable,lovable people in every locality, with whom itis 
a pleasure and a benefit to associate. And this is another and a 
chief source of human happiness. 

Few communities or individuals are so poor or so driven to toil, 
or so subject to suffering of any kind, but what there are means and 
occasions for some recreation and social enjoyments. It would be well 
if, among other things, people generally should make it a rule to 
often attend the great assemblies of the people in their section of 
country, the public lectures, concerts, conventions, fairs, school 
exhibitions, neighborhood parties and picnics when requested and 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 263 

certainly the religious meetings of their locality, and occasionally 
visit distant friends, the neighboring villages and places of interest. 
These things break in upon the lives of most people like rays of sun- 
shine into a dark room. 

The body is rested, the mind broadened and enlightened and 
filled with new ideas and thoughts and hopes. Even in the sordid 
view of finances it may often prove a great benefit. There may be 
those who do not see the pertinence here of these common-place re- 
marks, but the prescription was written for the benefit of a gloomy, 
grunting, growling, jienurious class of people who can never see any- 
thing except through a smoked glass, and who are apt to get scared 
at the bugbear of a little expense. 

THE HARVESTERS AT WORK. 

The most of the wheat was ready for ha>'vesting the third week 
in July, and was a very heavy crop. 

The following excerpt from the journal of an old resident, writ- 
ten at the time, covers many items of interest: 

"Harvest is now over and the yield has proved very abundant. All kinds 
of grain and vegetables are good and cannot be surpassed in any country, in 
either quality or quantity. Prices are satisfactory. Immigration and capital 
have poured into the county, and for permanent improvements the present 
year, thus far, surpasses all preceding years. It is estimated that as much 
ground has been broken this season as the whole amount under cultivation the 
preceding years. Money is yet somewhat 'close,' but abundant crops and good 
prices will soon loosen up the money market. Business of all kinds is looking 
lively, the people are energetic, cheerful and confident of the future." 

How different the aspects and prospects and the spirits of the 
people from what they were the preceding year. 

As pertinent to the subject in hand the following quotation is 
given from the report of the Commissioner of Statistics relative to 
the wheat crop of this year. It is a gently flowing bland document. 

The season began most auspiciously. The spring opened unusually early. 
A prompt sun quickened the torpid earth into a willing mood. Wooing show- 
ers kissed the waiting vegetation, and upland and meadow, forest and prairie, 
grew radiant with vernal beauty. Coaxed by the soft rain, smiling skies and 
alluring breath of an early spring, the wheat fields of Minnesota gambolled and 
rioted in tropical luxuriance. Everywhere in the broad expanse of our wheat 
domain, the hastening crop grew big with the promise of the greatest harvest 
ever known, except in the years 1860 and 1865. There was the same bountiful 
" setting " at the start, the same generous spreading and stately development 
of stalk, and the same amplitude of head and milky plumpness of berry, which 
ripened into the golden harvests of those years. 

But when in the critical period of development, just as the kernel was in 
the milk, a "heated term" commenced of wholly unparalleled intensity and dur- 
ation. For two weeks the fierce heat descended with unmitigated fury upon the 
gasping earth. The sun, as if obeying the command of a modern Joshua, 
seemed to stand still and pour a flood of white heat upon the tender heads of the 
unhardened grain. It is a marvel that it was not wholly blasted in the fiery 



264 HISTORY OF 

ordeal. But there is an invaluable property in the soil or climate of Minne- 
sota, perhaps in both, which enahlos the jtrain to measurahly resist the ex- 
tremes, wluthor of heat or flood. To such cause, whatever it may be, we 
have more than once owed the exemption of our maturing' crops from utter 
destruction. The worst result, in this instance, was that of forcing a pre- 
mature ripening, by which the berry was shrivelled and defrauded of its normal 
development. 

The untimely advent of this heated period during the critical transition 
of the grain from the milk to the dough, was perhaps the sole preventive of 
as large an average yield as was ever known in this State. Our heaviest wheat 
crops were those of 1860 and 1865, when the average was somewhat over twenty- 
two bushels per acre. Before the crop of 1868 was gathered, I estimated the 
loss from the cause named as equal to about one-tlfth of the crop, leaving an 
average which I estimated at 17.75, which estimate is shown to have been 
very near correct, the official returns showing 17.9 bushels as the average per 
acre. 

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY ITEMS. 

At the session of the legislature of this yeai-, an important act 
■was passed for the encouragement and assistance of the state and 
county agricultural societies. The act appropriated, annually, the 
the sum of two thousand dollars, to be equally divided among the 
county agricultural societies, which should comply with certain re- 
quirements, to be expended by them in such manner as they might 
deem best calculated to "promote and improve the condition of agri- 
culture, horticulture and the mechanical, manufacturing and house- 
hold arts and interests, in this State, either for the payment of 
pi'emiums at the annual exhibitions, or in the purchase and distri- 
bution of choice cuttings, seeds, plants or tubers, which having been 
tested, are found to be adapted to the soil and climate of this State, 
or in the pi'osecution of scientific investigation and experiments and 
in the collection and diffusion of information tending to develop the 
natural and agricultural resources of Minnesota." 

An adjourned meeting of the Agricultural Society was held at 
Winnebago City on the 11th day of July, at which time a premium 
list was made, judges appointed, and certain other arrangements 
made for the annual fair, which it was designed should be one of the 
best ever had in the county. It was determined to hold the fair at 
Winnebago City, on the 7th and 8th days of October. 

Among other intei'esting items, in the notices of the coming 
fair, the Homestead announced under the head. Agricultural Hop, 
that it was "proposed, as a finale to the fair, to have a jolly dance 
on the evening of the 8th." 

The fair proved very much a failure; the speaker engaged for 
the occasion failed to attend, and on the first day the ground was 
covered with snow and a cold nor'wester blew a regular gale. The 
following amusing account of the fair is taken from the Homestead 
of the 14th of October. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 265 

"The fair last week had the elements for an enemy and could not be started 
until nine o'clock of the second day. Ministers said the weather was very un- 
propitious. Hotel proprietors thought it tough. Young ladies declared it to be 
a shame. Old ladies said there was no use in worrying; while strapping west- 
erners, of full growth swore it was a bad egg. * ♦ » Nevertheless there was 
a fair and three or four hundred people saw it. Two beets and a harness looked 
askance at each other down stairs, while out of doors, two fine wooled bucks 
occupied the rear of a lumber wagon. All took the premium. The department 
of Fine Arts, up stairs, made a better show. The walls were draped in clothes 
lines, festooned with bed quilts and pictures, while the body of the room was 
ornamented with a variety of useful and ornamental articles, including babies. 
Glancing our eye about, we noticed a smashed water-mellon hanging on the west 
wall, which on inspection proved to be only an imitation. In close proximity 
to it, was a good representation of a girl in pantalettes, in the act of drawing a 
broad-sword. A sick cookoo, in the top of a clock, tried to make a noise, but 
couldn't pitch the tune, without being bolstered up, and that act of kindness 
having been done, he did not know enough to go in and shut the door." 

"There being abundance of room, little stockings, big stockings, tatting and 
the shells of the ocean lay scattered around in the order of disorder, each possess- 
ing some charm to win a beholder." 

"The track was in bad condition, but the running and trotting came off 
notwithstanding." 

But for the weather, this fair would have been a grand success. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

A State Teachers' Institute was held at Winnebago City, com- 
mencing Oct. 12th and lasting five days. This was the first State 
Institute for the instruction of teachers, held in this county, and 
proved a very useful as well as a very interesting affair. 

Thirty- two school teachers were present and took part in the 
exercises, while many other people interested in the work of educa- 
tion, attended the meetings and lectures. 

Hon. M. H. Bunnell, state superintendent. Prof. Sanford Niles 
and S. J. Abbott, county superintendent of schools in this county, 
were the instructors. 

About the same time notice was given of a Sunday School Teach- 
ers' Institute, to be held at Winnebago City, on the 26th, 27th and 28th 
days of October, under the charge of Rev. Geo. W. Prescott, State 
Sunday school agent. A very interesting programme of exercises 
was prepared and published, but for some now unknown cause this 
institute was either not held, or all record of the event is now 
lost. 

THE POOR FARM. 

A sale of school lands was held at Blue Earth City on the 23d 
day of October. At this sale the county purchased a tract of three 
hundred and twenty acres for a poor farm. This was making a very 
wise provison for the future. A time comes in the history of all en- 
lightened communities, when some provision must be made for the 



266 BfSTOItY OF 

aged and infirm poor, who have no means of support. In the mani- 
fold chances and changes of this mortal life — sickness, poverty, 
friendlessness, may come to even the richest and proudest of to-day, 
and the sad and lonely journey "over the hills to the poor house," 
may have to be made by some to whom such a contingency may be 
thought to be the remotest, or most impossible of all earthly events. 
The provision now usually made is the establishment of a hos- 
pital, or poor house, which is sustained by the public taxation. Of 
late years it has been found economical and beneficial, otherwise, to 
connect a farm with such poor house, from the products of which, 
in many places, the poor are comfortably maintained or nearly so. 
Besides many of the unfortunates who find the poor house their last 
resort, are able and willing to labor to some extent on a farm and 
thus contibute to their own support. The expense of purchasing 
lands at this time for the purpose, was much less than it would be 
in subsequent years when the county should become more populous. 
The tract purchased was near the center of the county, and com- 
prised the north half of section thirty six, in town one hundred 
and three (103) of range twenty-seven (27), being in the town of 
Prescott. 

THE POLITICIANS' FIELD-DAY. 

We now proceed to give a brief account of another furious and 
bitter political contest. The campaign was more than ordinarily 
exciting because, in addition to local issues, another presidential 
contest was in progress. 

Grant and Colfax were the republican candidates for president 
and vice-president, and Seymour and Blair the democratic candi- 
dates for the same high ofiices. 

Morton S. Wilkinson was the republican and Geo. W. Batchel- 
der the democratic candidate for member of congress, in this dis- 
trict. 

Three important amendments to the State Constitution were 
also to be voted upon. 

The Republican County Convention assembled at Blue Earth 
City on the 3d day of October. 

The convention nominated: 

F. Lent, for Register of Deeds. 

W. W. White, for Auditor. 

H. J. Neal, for Clerk of Court. 

J. R. Sisson, for County Surveyor. 

On the 10th day of October the Republican Legislative District 
Convention met at Fairmont, Martin county, and nominated for 
senator, A. L. Ward, of Martin county, and James L. Crays, of this 
county, for representative. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 267 

About the same time the democrats held a convention at Fair- 
mont also, for the nomination of legislative candidates. 

Dr. Hewitt, of Martin county, was nominated for senator, and 
Peter B. Davy, of this county, for representative. 

The "points" being still the issue in local politics, or rather 
made so, and the homestead question not having yet been satisfac- 
torily settled, and the nominations made at Fairmont being thought 
to be opposed to "]3oints" and the exemption of homesteads from tax- 
ation, an informal convention was held at Blue Earth City on the 
evening of the 17th of October, in the interest of the "points" and 
homestead men to consider the situation. Representatives were 
present from two counties — ^this and Jackson. 

The convention adopted a series of resolutions as a platform, 
the substance of which was that the railroad company having ac- 
cepted the grant of lands with the conditions, agreed to build their 
road through the points named and were in good faith bound to do 
so — that they wanted the "points" removed and designed not to build 
the road into this county or district, and that the nominations made 
at Fairmont were not binding upon the party, as they were fraudu- 
lently made. 

James B. Wakefield was nominated as a candidate for senator, 
and James W. Hunter, of Jackson county, for representative. A 
committee was appointed to draft and publish an "address" to the 
people of the district, setting forth, as was alleged, the real issues 
to be decided. The resolutions and address were published in the 
form of a circular and were distributed broadcast throughout the 
district. 

Shakesj)eare somewhere says: 

"Get thes glass eyes; 
And, like a scurvy politician, seem 
To see things thou dost not." 

What relevancy these lines may have had to the political affairs 
of the time, the writer of this history will not attempt to say, but 
they were heard repeated about that time. 

On the 31st of October, the democracy held a county convention 
at Winnebago City, and placed in the field, for county officers, the 
following candidates: 

For Auditor — Geo. Barnes. 

For Register of Deeds — D. H. Morse. 

For Clerk of Court— H. Hufcut. 

For Surveyor — Geo. A. Weir. 

Messrs. Hewett and Davy, democratic candidates for senator 
and representative, subsequently withdrew from the contest, and the 
lists of candidates being now settled, they all entered upon a fair 



268 HISTORY OF 

field for a free fight, which was conducted without fear, favor or 
affection upon either side. 

Politics in local questions were thrown aside, the district was 
canvassed from end to end, meetings were held, and the people were 
visited at their firesides by the candidates or their friends. 

Of the newspapers in the district, the Soutli-West at Blue Earth 
City, favored Wakefield and Hunter. The Homestead, at Winnebago 
City.and the Adas at Fairmont, favored Ward and Grays. The elec- 
tion was held on the third day of November. The following table 
presents the result in this county. Of the votes cast 

The Grant and Colfax electors had I 421 

The Seymour and Blair electors 373 

For Member of Conj,'russ— M. S. Wilkinson 1,418 

Geo. W. BatChelder 373 

For Senator— J. B. Wakefield 1,001 

A. L. Ward 734 

For Representative— J. W. Hunter 1,002 

James Grays 743 

For County Auditor— W. W. White 1,568 

Geo. Barnes 165 

For Register of Deeds— F. Lent 1,599 

D. n. Morse 147 

For Clerk of Court -H. .1. Neal 1,159 

H. Ilufcut 590 

For Surveyor— J. R. Sisson 1,511 

Geo. A. Weir 189 

J. A. Latimer was elected county commissioner for district No. 
4, and Joseph Claggett for district No. 5. 

Messrs. Wakefield and Hunter had a majority of the votes cast 
in the entire district and were elected, and so "points" and "No 
Homestead Taxation" won again, but the contest was a hard one and 
the majority small. 

The winter closed in about the 15th day of November, when a 
very severe snow storm began and continued unabated for three 
days. And now the record of this year's events may be closed with 
the statement tlaat on the 19th of December, C. W. Thompson. 
General Manager of the Southern Minnesota Railroad Company, 
made a proposition to some fourteen of the townships of the county, 
to the effect that tlie company would build and complete its road to 
Winnebago City in this county, by the first day of January, 1871, if 
the towns named in the proposition would vote aid in the form of 
town bonds, payable in ten years with seven per cent annual inter- 
est to the amounts specified in the proposition, which was fifteen 
thousand dollars in all the towns but Winnebago City, of which 
twenty-five thousand was required. 

In conclusion it may be written that in the way of immigration 
and permanent improvements, crops, weather, the public health and 
general prosperity, the year was one of the best in our history. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 269 



CHAPTER XV. 

A. D. 1869. 

"Pr'y thee friend, 
Pour out thy pack of matter to mine ear, 
The good and bad together." 

A CHRONICLE. 

In those days it was so ordered by the mighty rulers of the State 
that in each division thereof, known by the name of county, there 
should exist a body of five wise men who should have the supervis- 
ion of certain public affairs. And these men of experience in busi- 
ness matters, were chosen by districts composed of certain 
subdivisions named towns or townships, which small divisions were 
so made for the better government of the tribes and peoples thereof. 
Now it came to pass that on the fourth day of the first month of 
this year, these five prudent men met in council at the City of Blue 
Earth, the ancient capital of the county. 

Now their names were Andrew, surnamed More, a patriarch of 
the land of Pilot Grove, and one Henry, surnamed Neal, a man of 
much wordly wisdom from the section of country known as Blue 
Earth, and Jacob, better known by the name of Alec, surnamed Lat- 
imer, who came from the division known as "Winnebago City, and there 
was one named William, surnamed Robinson, whose people lived 
near the great water, called in the language of the English, Walnut 
lake, but in the language of the tribes which had been driven out, Ta- 
zu-ka, and there was the patriarch Joseph, surnamed Claggett, the 
man of ready tongue, who came from the regions known as Lura, 
to speak for the people thereof. And now it came to pass that as 
they were met together in council, the venerable man, Andrew, was 
chosen as chief for the year, and they then proceeded to consult to- 
gether in regard to certain public affairs, and they made certain or- 
ders and directions, which seemed unto them necessary for the public 
good. Now they had a scribe, one named William, surnamed White, 
a learned man who could write, and who was also of the tribes about 
Walnut lake, who made a record of all that these wise men did, in a 
great book which has come down even unto our day. But there was 
nothing done at this council which would be of interest to the people 
of this generation. Now, after they had conferred together for two 
days, they returned to their own people. And it came to pass that 



270 HISTORY OF 

these wise men afterwards, in this year, in the third and sixth and 
ninth months thereof met in council again, and somewhat of that which 
they then did, is it not written in the book of the chronicles of the 
county? 

AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

An important meeting of the Agricultural Society was held at 
Blue Earth City on the tifth day of January. At this meeting the 
annual election of officers occurred, and L. W. Brown was re-elected 
president; Geo. W. Buswell was chosen secretary and Alex. Lati- 
mert reasurer. A full board of vice presidents, that is one vice 
president in each township, was selected, and a committee of mem- 
bers was appointed to attend a meeting of the State Agricultural 
Society, to be held in February. New life and energy seems to have 
been, from some cause, infused into the sluggish blood of the soci- 
ety, about this time, and was certainly much needed. Another meet- 
ing was held at Blue Earth City, July 17th, at which time a committee 
of one for each town in the county was appointed to prepare a pre- 
mium list and appoint judges for the next fair, and this committee 
met on the 31st day of July and performed the duties assigned them. 
It was at this time also determined that the next fair should be held 
at Blue Earth City on the 16th and i7th days of September. 

THERMOMETRICAL. 

It maybe recorded, as we proceed, that January, of this year 
was one of the mildest winter months ever known in this region. 

THE FIRST "BONUSES." 

The matter of leading public interest in the county during Janu- 
ary, was the voting of "bonuses" by a number of towns, on the 
proposition of C. W. Thompson, referred to at the close of the pre- 
ceding year, to aid in the construction of the Southern Minnesota 
Railroad, the route of which had been surveyed into the county and 
through the towns of Cobb, Walnut Lake, Lura, Guthrie and Win- 
nebago City. Town meetings were held in these and some other 
towns, for the purpose of voting the bonds, called "bonuses," of 
the several towns, in various amounts, to aid in the building of the 
road. The proposition called forth a great deal of discussion. Many 
different views were entertained as to the necessity and expediency 
of the proceeding. The proposition failed in most of the towns, and 
in one of those voting favorably, Verona, the issue of the bonds was 
subsequently stopped by injunction, and another, Guthrie (Delavan) 
made haste to rescind the vote. 

About this time petitions were again in circulation through the 
county praying the legislature, then in session, to pass Mr. Wake- 
field's bill in relation to taxation of homesteads, and this time they 
were of some avail. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 271 

THE PARLIAMENT. 

The legislature assembled January 5th, and adjourned March 
5th. The only acts passed at this session of the legislature in which 
this county had any special interest were the following: 

"An act to amend an act to authorize the towns ot Fillmore, Mower, Free- 
born, Faribault, Martin and Jackson counties to issue bonds to aid in the con- 
struction of any railroads running into or through said counties." 

"An act to compel count}' auditors of the several counties of the State to 
strike from their several tax duplicates, certain taxes therein named." 

This was Mr. Wakefield's homestead tax bill of the previous 
year which had then failed. 

It was now passed and disposed of — the question of homestead 
taxation; the views of the homestead settlers had triumphed. 

Alexander Ramsey was at this session re- elected his own suc- 
cessor as United States senator. 

James B. Wakefield, as intimated above, in the Senate, and James 
W. Hunter, of Jackson County, in the House, wex-e our members of 
the legislature for this year. 

HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION. 

The adoption of an important amendment to the homestead ex- 
emption law of the State, during the session of the legislature of 
this year, may warrant a few remarks here in relation to this im- 
portant subject. 

The homestead exemption law to which reference is here made, 
has no relation to the question of homestead taxation in regard to 
which much has been said heretofore in this history. This is a 
different subject. 

The wisdom of the policy of exempting by law, a portion of 
land, together with the dwelling house thereon and appurtenances, 
either according to the quantity of land, or the value of the prem- 
ises, from foi-ced sale in payment of all ordinary debts or liabilities 
of the owner and his family, and the extension of such exemption 
to the widow and children of a deceased person, is coming to be 
recognized by most civilized nations. 

We need not hesitate in saying at once, that such exemption is 
a most benificent act, both for the individual and the State. And 
the courts of justice, in modern times, taking this view of the sub- 
ject, are extremely liberal in their construction of the law, in favor 
of the beneficiary, and in protection of the right. 

In estimating the extent and value of this exemption, it must be 
remembered that it is granted, not only for the benefit of the indi- 
vidual owner — a favor personal to him alone — who, often, indeed, 
may not, as a matter of justice, be entitled, because of his dishon- 



272 ETSTOIiV OF 

esty, to such protection, but it is designed for the protection, also, 
of the wife and children of the ownei* — a right of theirs as well — who 
might otherwise be deprived of a home, for no fault of theirs. To 
the procuring of such homestead, their care and labor may, and gen- 
erally does, largely contribute. 

The ownership of the home secures the family from many ills, 
however poor the family may be, in other respects, and saves the 
public charities fi-om many a burden they would otherwise have to 
bear. 

The stale suggestion, hoard sometimes, where the credit system 
prevails, that everything a man has should be holden for his debts, 
is sufficiently answered by the statement, that as the law exists, and 
is well-known to evei'yone, credit need not be granted to the owner 
of only a homestead, any more than it need be to one who has 
nothing. 

The fault in such case, if any fault there be, is largely with the 
creditor, in his not exercising proper discretion. The suggestion 
is one prompted by that seltishness and averice, which reduces 
everything to a sordid "business basis," gain, profit, per cent., and 
is without any conception of a correct public policy, or the higher, 
wider and more humane views of the subject. 

The fact is that the home of a man, and his family, is somewhat 
different in a number of respects, from ordinary propertj', and is en- 
titled to special protection. 

By this law there is granted to every man and his family, one 
spot of earth with its sheltering tenements, which they may call 
their own. A man's dwelling here is "his castle," which no one may 
enter without his leave, except when he is armed with the strongest 
writs of the law. And this spot of earth he and his family may 
make as comfortable and as beautiful as they can afford — a spot 
which, whatever misfortunes, or mischances of life or business, may 
befall the owner, cannot be wrenched from him, and they be turned 
out homeless upon the world, except indeed, as the result of their 
own deliberate act of mortgaging the premises. Even in this sol- 
emn act of mortgaging the homestead, the law manifests a strong 
leaning towards its protection, and contains the wise provision that 
where the mortgagor is a married man. any mortgage given, except 
to secure the payment of the purchase money, shall be void, unless 
signed by the wife of the mortgagor. Thus are the strong, shelter- 
ing arms of the law thrown about this right. 

And no mortgage should ever be placed on the homestead, ex- 
cept, possible, for the purchase money. If stress of circumstances 
compel the mortgaging of property, certainly prudence says, with 
a loud voice, let the homestead be the last thing to be thus encum- 
bered. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 273 

It is unquestionable that having such homestead exemption for 
himself and family, the owner lias not only the advantage of a secure 
basis from which to work, to repair his fallen fortunes, if such be 
the fact, or on which to build up prosperity and success, but he 
retains that manly courage, that hopefulness, and has that encour- 
agement, all so necessary to success in the affairs and business of 
life. Secure here he goes forth bravely and manfully to fight the 
battles of life, to earn a subsistence and place in the world. This 
fact becomes evident when we consider the effects of a reverse con- 
dition. Divest a man and his family of tbeir all; turn them out 
empty-handed, upon the charities of the wox'ld, poor and homeless, 
and it is not hopefulness and renewed effort that are likely to result, 
but despair, even recklessness and utter destruction are more likely 
to follow, conditions upon which, in many instances, degredation 
and crime follow fast. It is such conditions that, all over the world, 
are breeding communism and anarchism. 

It may confidently be asserted that the possession of such ex- 
empt homestead has the tendency to make an independent, manly 
and interested citizen; independent, because he may live within him- 
self, in a great measure, and is not dependent for his very shelter 
from the weather upon some master; manly, because independent, 
at least to this extent, and interested in the welfare and prosperity 
of the land, because he owns a part of it, instead of being a mere 
sojourner, a mere tenant. There is a pardonable pride, a satisfac- 
tion, a spring of hopefulness in the heart of every man who owns 
his home. How much stronger, in any view, is a land of well pro- 
tected homesteads, than one of great land owners, and poor depen- 
dent tenants"? There are principles involved here, that reach evea 
to the liberties of a people. 

What is the "fatherland" or any other land worth to a man in 
which he can have no personal interest, no certain foothold, no po- 
litical rights worth fighting for? The Hebrew lawgiver realized the 
good policy of giving and securing to every head of a family a 
piece of ground with certain ownership thereof. 

The same policy was recognized among the jDeople of that wisest 
of the ancient nations, the Egyptians. To broaden a little more 
what has already been said, it may be added that ownership in the 
soil, especially if it is a protected homestead, is not only a question 
of public safety, but of good citizenship. Men who own property 
must support the laws and maintain good order, that their property 
may be protected and the enjoyment thereof made safe and agree- 
able, and this leads to interest in public affairs and promotes self- 
respect and patriotism. 

A man who has never known the hai"d struggle of the many 
for comfortable subsistence, and to provide for and protect a loved 



274 HISTOliY OF 

family, dependent alone upon his health and the labors of his nands, 
can appreciate the value of a protected homestead, and is incompe- 
tent to sit in judgment on the subject. 

While proi)erty exempt from sale on execution for debt, should, 
of course, be always limited to a reasonable amount, the people 
should see to it that there is such exemption and that it is well 
guarded. 

ANOTHER CONSIDERATION PERTINENT. 

One of the greatest evils which oppress the nations of Europe 
to-day, arises from the fact that the ownership of the lands has 
passed into a few hands. Great landlords hold vast tracts of the 
country, while the people have no interests in the soil, and are sim- 
ply tenants. This same evil existed in many of the ancient nations 
and was one of the principal causes of their downfall. This condi- 
tion of affairs was especially intrenched in Europe through the 
operation of the old Feudal laws, but after their influence and oper- 
ation began to wane, other causes arose to continue or produce the 
same conditions. The privileged, or aristocratic and titled classes, 
who had the wealth and opportunities which they made for them- 
selves, began to acquire the lands, and continually added to their 
domains, until but few of the people — the masses of the citizens, 
who really constitute the nation, who are its strength, do its busi- 
ness, create its real wealth and fill its armies, have any interest in 
the soil they stand upon. 

The tendency is now in the same direction in this country. Men 
of great wealth and rich corporations have begun buying up vast 
tracts of the best farming lands and holding them for speculative 
purposes, or by some, for the purpose of creating great estates. 

Already more than one half of the farmers of the eastern and 
middle states are but tenants, and pay rent in money or share of 
crops for the use of the land they till. Many of them once owned 
the land. 

And what ad'ds to this menace to our institutions is the fact 
that foreigners, aliens, individually, and in the form of great com- 
panies, are becoming the owners of millions of acres of American 
soil. And it is possible that this absorption of our lands may go on 
until alien owners may control the destiny of a state or states, 
where they have secured such a foothold. And judging from the 
fact of the great quantities of wild lands still existing here, and the 
silent and insidious approach of this evil, it will go on, largely un- 
noticed, for j'ears hence. 

But a day will come, and it cannot be far distant, when the 
people of this country, state legislatures and congress will become 
aroused to the fact, that our vast domain of valuable public lands, 
has about passed away, and that some limit must be placed on cor- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 275 

porate, and especially on alien, ownership of lands in this country , 
The lands of this nation should be held only by American citizens, 
who are actual settlers upon them, or directly interested in their 
cultivation and improvement. 

America for Americans, native born or naturalized, must be our 
watchwords. Shall we allow it to be the fact that an American 
citizen cannot enter upon, or use, or buy, except at extortionate 
prices, any part of certain vast tracts of American soil, because that 
soil is owned by an alien and non-resident? 

This country has no use for European landed estates, nor for 
any European landlord and tenantry systems. Why cannot the in- 
telligent people of this nation — a people's nation — protect them- 
selves from the well-known evils of which this is one, which have 
wrought the ruin of all the nations, whose wrecks blacken the high- 
ways of time through thirty centuries, or is there a predestined 
course, which all nations must run, from birth to final destruction ? 

THE HOME. 

Intimately connected with the subject of homestead exemption, 
is that of the home itself, in reference to which the expression of a 
few thoughts here seem appropriate: 

"Better than gold is a peaceful home, 
Where all the fireside charities come. 
The shrine of love and the heaven of life. 
Hallowed by mother, or sister or wife. 
However humble the home may be. 
Or tried with sorrow, by heaven's decree. 
The blessing's that never were bought or sold, 
And center there, are better than gold." 

— Whittier. 

It is said that the thi-ee sweetest words in the English language 
are "Mother, Home and Heaven." 

It is a true and beautiful thought. They are, indeed, a noble 
trinity, and they are intimately related, for with almost every home 
there is the mother, the most important and most loved one of the 
homefold, and we all hope that when done with time, heaven may be 
our final home. And it should not be forgotten how near we can 
make the home to heaven. It can, indeed, be made the doorway, at 
least, to that eternal home. 

The poet and the orator have ever vied with each other in describ- 
ing the home, its memories, associations and influences, and volumes 
have been filled with the subject. It may be stated here as a pass- 
ing remark, that our own — the saxon race — as a general rule, have 
the best homes, and realize what real home life is to a greater extent 
than any other race of people on earth. 



• 



276 HISTORY OF 

A man's home, the home of his childhood, or the home of his 
mature years, constitutes for him the center of the world from which 
all Hues radiate — the point where all lines converge. Home to all is 
the basic point — the jwint from which all start on the voyage of life 
and the chief object of interest in the return from all wanderings. 
Here are our dearest treasures and nearest and truest friends, and 
with it are entwined our purest hopes, most unselfish labors and 
tenderest affections. It is our place of refuge and rest. And it is 
true that by far the greater sum of human happiness on earth 
is to be found in the (luiet, contented and unambitious life of home. 

Such being the importance of home with every human creature, 
the corresponding importance of making the home what it should be. 
ought to be recognized by everyone. And how great and generous 
the law is in protecting and making the home secure, we have seen 
above and it should be an incentive to all in their labors to secure 
comfortable and happy homes. 

Every man in beginning life, if settled permanentlj', and, espec- 
ially if married or if expecting to marry, should secure a homestead 
— a home of his own. Such a determination would, to begin with, 
be a method by which many a young man could save his earnings. 

A man may have little influence or power in the great world 
around him. but here at least, in now his little empire, where he may 
exhibit his heart, his taste and his intelligence and be appreciated 
according to his real worth. 

Homes are of many grades, from those of ease, culture and 
beauty, to those of ragged poverty, squalor, ignorance and vice, 
but in every land there are more real homes among those who are 
classed as the poor, or people in ordinary circumstances, than among 
those whom the world calls rich. Fortunately riches are not neces- 
sary to make a home, but good sense, kindly hearts and generous 
sympathies are, and these may be among the possessions of the 
poor as well as of the rich. 

Safe and comfortable protection from the weather, health ful- 
ness and as much convenience of arrangement as can be afforded, 
are a primary consideration in every home, and when all cannot be 
reached at once, all know how much can be done even by the poor- 
est, in doing little by little, year by year, to reach the desired end. 

Shade trees, neatly kept walks, quiet little arbors, evergreens 
and trailing vines, flowers, shrubbery and a green lawn, even if 
small, and neatness and cleanliness in all the surroundings are 
things which all enjoy and which all can have with little labor or 
cost, however poor, while the more wealthy can have these things 
and others on a larger scale and in greater abundance, in propor- 
tion to their means. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 277 

Then besides the articles of household use and eomfort, those 
of the adornipaent of the home must not be forgotten. Pictures and 
other articles of taste and beauty should be, and happily can be, had 
in every home, hoAvever humble, and these things are a perpetual 
pleasure, and are of utility as educators of the mind and tastes and 
heart. 

When man fell from his high estate of purity, and the angels who 
once had companionship with him went back to heaven, they forgot 
to take back with them a few things, among which music was one, 
and in every home on earth there should some sort of music be 
known and often heard. Let it be vocal, if nothing more can be had, 
but both vocal and instrumental, of some kind, if possible; yes, let 
music be cultivated in evex-y home — it purifies the soul, rests the 
weary heart, elevates the thoughts, awakens our purest emotions 
and smooths the furrowed brow of care and toil. 

Here, too, should be good books, the best the world affords, for 
in this day the best are as cheap as the poorest, and at the head of 
all should stand the old family bible. By them we are brought into 
intimate relations with the greatest and best of our race. And we 
should have pure newspapers for instruction, and to give us the news 
of the great outside world; ^,nd here the companionship of parent 
and child must not be forgotten, for it is the purest source of pleas- 
ure, the strongest bond of influence over the heart and life of both. 
The club for the mac of family to join, is not the club on the street, 
or the one that meets in some secluded room, but is the home circle, 
the home club. Let the home be beautified and made attractive, if 
for no other reason, at least, for the good one of making the children 
happy, and when they go forth from it in after years to fight the 
battles of life, they may ever bear with them the hallowed influences 
and pleasant memories of childhood's years. The home and its in- 
fluences will thus hold them in its grasp, however far they may 
stray away. It will not be long in any case when they must go forth 
from the home, when the storms of life, its cares, responsibilities 
and disappointments, will sweep around them. Life's duties of labor, 
good citizenship, of high and honorable purposes, will rest upon 
them. Oh I fathers and mothers, make your children, while yet in 
the home, strong in integrity, patriotism, industry, honor, intelli- 
gence; strong iu true manhood and true womanhood. Certain erro- 
neous views seem to be entertained hy some people as to the home. 
It is not a place to go to only to eat and sleep and get shelter from 
the inclemency of the weather, but it is the abiding place. The 
home and not the public school is the primary place of education. 
The home and not the Sunday school, nor even the church, should 
be the primary school of religious instruction. The home and not 
the great world, or society, should be the primary school of man- 



278 HJSTOnV OF 

ners and of social life. The home and not the caucus, or the con- 
vention. Of the public meeting, or the polling place, is. the i>roper 
primary school in which to learn the duties of good citizen- 
ship and the lessons of patriotism. Some one has wisely said that 
"the real strength of a nation is in the homes of its people." And 
surely that is the most prosperous country which has the greatest 
number of happy homes. Home teaching, more than ministers and 
schools, or politics, is deciding to-day what the men and women of 
the future, and the destinies of our country will be. And now it may 
be remarked that no home, however large the tenement, however 
beautiful the surroundings and tasteful its adornments may be, can 
ever be a true and happy home, unless constant courtesy, good man- 
ners, mutual aid and sympathy, ready forbearance with each other's 
faults and foibles, respect for and obedience to parents and purity of 
life are found in it. 

But there is still a step higher in the grade of the home and the 
life there lived. 

Every home should be a Christian home, where Christian love 
and peace and cheerfulness shall reign. There is no development 
of civilized life so high, and so happy, as that of an intelligent. 
Christian home. Here the family altar is erected, and the living and 
known God is recognized in daily praise and prayer, and those many 
graces abound which spring up in the hearts and live in the lives of 
the true followers of Christ. 

The influence of daily home worship, sensibly, not censoriously 
and exactingly conducted, is ever beneficent. "It makes men to be 
of one mind in a house." Though silent, it is irresistible and last- 
ing. It tends much toward allaying selfishness, quieting jealousies 
and irritability. It subdues the passions, it softens the heart, ele- 
vates the sentiments and produces union, harmony and kindly con- 
sideration. Where the home is ruled by God's word, angels might 
tarry there a day, or a night, and not be out of their element. In 
such homes they have been seen and known in the long ago. May 
they not visit such homes now, though unseen by mortal ej'es'? But 
this is not all that may be said. The children who are brought up 
around the family altar, seldom, ever wholly, forget or lose the bene- 
fit of their teachings there. Among the social forces, none is 
stronger than the Christian teachings of the home of childhood. 

A word more and these observations may be closed. The great- 
est special enemies of the home and the happiness which should be 
enjoyed there, are the rum seller, the infidel and the scandal mon- 
ger, all representatives of satan, and active about his business, and 
of all the works of satan, the desecration of the home is the vilest 
and furthest reaching. 



FABIBAVLT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 279 

And now it may be stated that all these remarks are but pre- 
liminary to the statement of the fact, which the writer is proud to 
record here as an item of this history, that our county has hundreds 
of real homes within its borders, happy homes, homes of comfort, 
taste, culture and refinement, and as the years roll on they increase 
in number, ever thus attesting to the advancement and elevation of 
our people. 

THE SPRING. 

The snows of the winter were carried off, early in April, with 
considerable rain, causing very high waters. The spring was quite 
unfavorable, and seeding was delayed until the middle of April and 
later in some localities. 

It was encouraging to the people of the county, under the gen- 
eral conditions of the weather and the money market, that immi- 
gration commenced in April, to a considerable extent, which is 
much earlier then usual. The immigration continued during the 
spring and summer, but going mainly into the counties west of this, 
and the tide which was then setting strongly to those new counties, 
was great indeed. Money about this time was scarce, and the times 
grew pretty "hard," for all of which there was abundant reason. 

THE UNITED STATES LAND OFFICE. 

In the month of April, James B. Wakefield, of this county, was 
appointed receiver, and E. P. Freeman, of Blue Earth county, regis- 
ter of the United States land office, at Winnebago City, in this 
county. On the twenty-first day of August, the office was removed 
from Winnebago City to Jackson, in Jackson county. A very earnest 
effort was made at the time, to secure the office at Blue Earth City, 
and it was thought, confidently, for a short time, that the effort would 
be successful. Some persons were so sanguine that Blue Earth 
City would succeed, that they had already selected the location of 
the office building. But Blue Earth City was again, as years befox-e, 
disappointed in its efforts. The public interests, it was said, required 
the location of the office further west, and westward with "the course 
of empire," the office took its way. 

THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 

Owing to the rapid progress of settlement and improvement on 
the Pacific coast, and the requirements of a large part of the world's 
commerce, the necessity of a great trans-continental line, or lines, 
of railway, from the east to the west, was long apparent, and much 
discussed. But little, beyond enthusiastic talk, was done, however, 
until 1859, when congress authorized the great scheme. It was a pro- 
ject of great national importance, and worthy of, and of necessity 
had to be, taken under national patronage. Of the details of the 



280 UISTOllY or 

act we cannot here treat, further than to say, the act comprised the 
building of three lines of roads, the Northern, the Southern and the 
Central. The Central or middle lino was the first to be completed. 
The construction of this, the greatest railroad in the world, in many 
respects, spanning the continent from the furtherest east to the 
Golden Gate, was the most stupendous work ever undertaken by 
man, in any age or country. 

The road was built from the western end eastwardly, by the 
Central Pacific Company, and from the eastern end westward ly, 
commencing at Omaha, Neb., by the Union Pacific Company. And 
it was on the tenth day of May, of this year, at Promontory Point, 
in the Territory of Utah, the two ends were united and- this grand 
work completed. 

It was to be expected that the completion of such a wonderful 
and valuable enterprise should be attended with great rejoicings 
throughout the whole country, and such was the fact. Spikes of 
pure gold and a hammer of pure silver were used in laying the last 
rail, and the blows of the sledge were telegraphed to all the great 
cities of the Nation, and then came the final telegram, "Tlie laf<t rail 
is laid ! The last spike driven .' The Pacific Railroad is completed .' ! 

THE FIRST DEPOT— WELLS. 

And now let us look at home a little. We have also some rail- 
road interests and many other matters of which to speak right here. 
It was in this month of May and in this year that the first railroad 
depot was located in this county. The location was on section 9, in 
the town of Cobb, town 103, range 24. 

At this point it was designed by Col. C. W. Thompson, the pro- 
prietor, to lay off a town, which he soon proceeded to do, and the 
village of Wells loomed up on the prairies. A fuller account of the 
founding of Wells, will be found in the historical sketch of Clark 
township. 

THE POST. 

On the twenty ninth day of May the first number of The Blue 
Earth City PoM. was issued at Blue Earth City. It was a seven column 
sheet and one of the neatest papers, typographically, in the State. 
The editors and publishers were Messrs. W. W. Williams and M. H. 
Stevens. The following brief extract from the salutatory indicates 
the views and purposes of the publishers. "The publication of The 
Blue Earth Citij Post has been commenced to supply, what seems to 
be, a demand here for a good reliable local and county paper. We 
shall attempt to supply this demand in a satisfactory manner, striv- 
ing, faithfully, to do our part and rely on the public to aid us by 
giving us such an amount of patronage as our enterprise deserves. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 281 

"Politically the Post will be liberally republican. * * * 
We shall aim to make the Post a local, rather than a political, paper. 
The Post being published at the county seat, will contain a full 
record of current events, relating to county matters." * * * 

There were now three newspapers in the count3% the Post and 
South TFes^ at Blue Earth City, and r/ie i^^'ee i7o?HesfeafZ, at Winnebago 
City. On the twelfth day of June, the South West appeared as a 
nine column sheet, and with a new and very fine heading. It was 
now a very large paper, one of the largest in the northwest and 
the editor, still Mr. Huntington, proudly claimed it to be the best. 
In typography and otherwise, the paper was greatly improved over 
former years. 

JUSTICE. 

The annual term of the District Court commenced June 1st. 
The term lasted eight days. This was the last term of court held 
by Judge Austin, in this county, he having been, as will be seen 
hereafter, elected Governor of the State. 

MISERIES OF JURY DUTY. 

"I'll never serve on another jury as long as I live." Said one of the jurors, 
to a friend. 

"Yes it must be very tiresome," replied the friend. 

"It is, indeed, but that is not what I'm complaining about." 

"The loss of time is not repaid by the per diem and mileage." 

"I didn't mind the loss of time so much. It was not the loss of time that 
galled me." 

"What was it that exasperated you so much?" 

"Well when we were impaneled, some young sprouts of the law, looked 
us over, as if we were a pen of sheep. I heard a lawyer whisper to another, 
'well I guess we can handle that bunch of mullets,' the other replied, giggling, 
'I guess tliey have not formed any opinions by reading the newspapers, from 
appearances,' and a newspaper next day, describing the jury, referred to me, 
as being, apparently, a beef-headed young man, with ears that could be pinned 
together above my head. 'I'll plug that editor, when I see him, you bet-your- 
llfe.' — From an Arkansaw Paper. 

THE INDIAN EXHIBITION. 

In the spring of this year Capt. P. B. Davy, whose name has 
been mentioned heretofore in connection with several important 
enterprises, with several other residents of this county, inaugurated, 
after considerable discussion, the organization of an Indian show or 
exhibition. 

More fully stated, the plan proposed was to collect together a 
number of native Red men, from the tribes of the northwest, with 
their lodges, ponies, carts, dogs, implements of war and the chase, 
and travel through the country exhibiting under a large canvas, 
pavillion and tents the Indians and their manners and customs, their 



282 histohy of 

feasts, burials, dances, marriages, domestic economj'. family life, 
modes of warfare and other intcreslinj? features of Indian life. 

A larj^e company, consisting mainly of residents of this county, 
was formed. The necessary outfit of tents, teams, wagons and other 
requisites were procured. The Indians, with all their native accou- 
trements were obtained, and in short, the Great Indian E.xhibition 
was organized, and in June was announced in circulars and poster.s, 
of which the following were the head lines: 

Ho ! Ho 1 ! 

The most Instructive, Unique and Dignified 

Entertainment now travelling on the North American Continent. 

Grand 
North-western Indian Exhibition. 

Consisting of One Hundred Native Indians, 
Including the Chiefs and Head Men of the Ancient Sisseton 
Tribe of Sioux, from the far-off plains of Dakota. 

The arrangements moved along very successfully, and on the 
twenty-third day of June, the first public exhibition was given at 
Blue Earth City. 

This first exhibition proved a great success, and demonstrated 
the fact, that under prudent management, sustained by sufiBcient 
capital until fairly started, and with favorable weather, the enter- 
prise would certainly prove a profitable one. 

But it must be added, that after a number of more or less suc- 
cessful exhibitions at various points in the State, the project had 
to be abandoned, and the company was broken up, mainly in conse 
quence of almost incessant rains and storms encountered by the ex- 
hibition and the excessively bad roads. 

It was reported currently in the newspapers of the time, that 
during this year, an unusual number of circus and other exhibition 
companies, principally from the same cause, became bankrupt. 

Captain Peter B. Davy was a native of Canada, where he was 
born October 7th, 1830. Ho obtained his education in the common 
schools and at the Normal Academy at Toronto, where he graduated. 
He commenced teaching school at the age of fifteen years, and con- 
tinued in that employment until he became eighteen years old. He 
was married in 1851 to Miss Calista M. Rose. They had two child- 
ren, one of whom died in infancj'. He came to the United States in 
1852, and located in Chicago, Illinois, where he remained until 1851, 
when he removed to Waterloo, Iowa, where he continued to reside 
until July, 1857, when he came to this county. On his arrival here 
he purchased the steam saw mill at Blue Earth City, in which he 
was interested about two years. For several years he engaged in 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 283 

the sale of various patents, selling territorial rights mainly, and in 
this business he visited various states. 

In October 1862, he enlisted in the military service of the United 
States, and was chosen first lieutenant of Company "K," First Minne- 
sota Cavalry, and the following year was promoted to the captaincy. 
While in the service he was with General Sibley in his expedition 
against the Indians. 

The regiment was mustered out in December, 1863, and he im- 
mediately re-enlisted in the Second Regiment of Minnesota Cavalry, 
and was commissioned captain of Company H. He served until 
April 28th, 186(), when the company was mustered out of the service. 
He i-e turned to Blue Earth City, and in 1867 he organized the Mon- 
tana expedition, as heretofore stated. 

Having conducted the expedition to Helena, Montana, he re- 
turned to Blue Earth City and organized the famous Black Hills 
expedition, also heretofore spoken of, but this failing, his next 
enterprise was the organization of the Indian exhibition above re- 
corded. After settling up his affairs in this venture he returned to 
Blue Earth City and led a retired life. He took much interest in lo- 
cal affairs and was at one time president of the city council of Blue 
Earth City, and held other offices. Captain Davy was a mason and 
was for five years master of Blue Earth City Lodge, No. 57, and 
was a member of Mt. Horeb Chapter, R. •. A.-. M. •. No. 21, and 
had attained the 32° A. •. A. •. Scottish Rite. He was afflicted for 
some years with a disease of the throat and lungs, and went to Den- 
ver, Col., in the autumn of 1888, but finding no relief, he concluded to 
return home, but died on the way, January 7th, 1889. His body was 
brought home, and was iaterred in the Blue Earth City cemetery. 

Captain Davy was twice married. His first wife dying, he mar- 
ried Mrs. Alzina M. Fockler, a widow lady, who survives him. • His 
religious connection was from his youth with the Protestant Epis- 
copal church, and in politics he usually acted with the democratic 
party, but he never was a partisan. His name frequently appears 
in this history. 

THE GREAT ANNIVERSARY. 

The fourth day of July of this year happened on Sunday, and 
was generally celebrated throughout the country on the third and 
fifth, thus affording, to enthusiastic young patriots the privilege, in 
some localities, of having two "fourths" in one year. 

In this county, however, there was but little demonstration. 
At Bear's Grove, in Lura, at Minnesota Lake and at Banks, in Pos- 
ter, the day was commemorated. 

At other places match games of base ball, a little horse racing, 
some dancing in the evening, and the general consumption of fire 



284 nisTonr of 

crackers were about all the indications that the spirit of patriotism 
still lived in this county. 

Hear what a man who likes the old time Fourth has to say: 

"Folks is ^,'t'ttin' kinder lazy, 'n tlicy celebrate the Fourth, 
.list ez if their blood wuz colder than the blizzards of the North. 
Winiern hate to hear a cannon, "n their narves is all upsot 
Ef a yoiinn 'un ut the woodshed with liis popj^un takes a shot, 
While the men have got so skittish that a cracker luakes 'em cuss, 

"N they want the celebration made without a bit o' fuss. 

»♦*#«»*»» 

Gimme back the celebrations when we split the air in two— 

Them wuz days when life wuz better with the world 'n me 'n you; 

Fer we jflorilled the country 'n the boomin' of the gun 

Wuz the sound of patriotism, 'n we had a heap ujore fun. 

While the lessons of the speeches made Ijefore the day wuz old 

Made us loveour flag 'n country, 'n her glories writ in gold."— 1''. W.Lee. 

THE ECLIPSE. 

"The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out! 
With one stride comes the d&Tk'."— Coleridge. 

Undoubtedly a total eclipse of the sun is the grandest, most 
awe-inspiring natural phenomenon mortal eyes have ever beheld. 
The total eclipse of the sun, which occurred on the seventh day 
of August, of this year, was an exceedingly important one, in a 
scientific point of view, and it is written that "never were more ex- 
tensive preparations made by governments, and men of science, to 
have thorough observations of a solar eclipse, than at this time." 

It is hardly necessary to say that in all ages eclipses have been 
regarded by the ignorant "as alarming deviations from the estab- 
lished laws of nature" and indicative of the near approach of some 
great public calamity. Even so late as this year, there was a 
prophet of evil ia an adjoining state who announced that "the 
eclipse was a judgment upon the world for its abominations, and 
that the path of its shadow over the earth would be marked by 
utter blight." 

Much interest was taken by the people of this section of country 
in this eclipse, as the obscuration would be almost total at Blue 
Earth City, and complete only nineteen miles south of that point. 

Several scientific men from St. Paul came to Blue Earth City, 
and on the seventh, accompanied by several citizens of that village, 
proceeded into Iowa, to a point on the wide open prairies, about 
nineteen miles directly south of that village. 

As the hour of the eclipse approached, manj'^ were ready with 
their smoked glasses. As the time drew nearer, and nearer, the 
query arose in many minds and the question was laughingly asked, 
will the calculations of these astronomers, made years and years ago, 
be verified? A few minutes will tell, let us watch. As the index on 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 285 

the dial reached forty- three minutes past three o'clock, p. m., lo, 
and behold, on time to the minute the eclipse commenced, the moon 
was seen to intrude upon the disc of the sun. Slowly, certainly, the 
darkness moved over the sun's face, the obscuration growing more 
and more, and then was seen the awful approach of the moon's 
shadow in the air. The heavens were darkened, stars and planets 
appeared, the air grew sensibly cooler. And now the crickets 
chirped, animals became strangely agitated, the birds bewildered, 
fluttered about the tree tops. A strange gloom overspread all 
nature, the trees, houses and other objects had a weird and un- 
natural appearance, and human faces assumed a pallid, ghastly look 
in the unnatural light, and when the eclipse had approached near 
totality all grew silent and grave, and a feeling of profound awe, 
even an indefinable dread took possession of the beholder, and the 
fearful thought came involuntarily to the mind, what if this eclipse 
should remain? At four o'clock and forty-eight minutes the ob- 
scurity began to pass off, and at five o'clock, forty-five minutes, p. m. 
the gloinous sun, more beneficent now than ever, shown forth again 
in his full splendor, and a feeling of great satisfaction came to all, 
however wise and fearless they pretended to be. Such was an inter- 
esting event but briefly and imperfectly described. And now as an 
interesting item we copy the following: 

WHAT AN ECLIPSE MIGHT BE. 

A correspondent of the Boston Post says: "Few people trouble them- 
selves to think what the effect would be if the eclipse of Saturday were to last 
any length of time, and the sun were blotted from the heavens. Philosophy 
declares that not only would a horror of darkness cover the earth, but the mois- 
ture of the atmosphere would be precipitated in vast showers to the earth, and 
the temperature fall to a fearful point of cold, nothing less than 230 degrees 
below zero, Fahrenheit. The earth would be the seat of darkness, and more 
than arctic desolation. JJothing could survive such freezing cold a moment, 
more than one could breathe in scalding water. In three days after the cool- 
ing process began, nothing created would be alive but monsters that wallow in 
the deep ocean, and the eyeless reptiles that make their haunts in caves which 
penetrate far under ground." 

A late issue of the London Telegraph, says: 

"Apropos of the recent solar eclipse, a story worthy of Hacka^lnder has 
recently gone the round of the German papers. It appears that on the morn- 
ing of the event alluded to, Capt von S , of the Fusilliers, issued the follow- 
ing verbal order to his company, through his sergeant major, to be communi- 
cated to the men after forenoon parade: 'This afternoon a solar eclipse will 
take place. At 3 o'clock the whole company will parade in the barrack-yard. 
Fatigue jackets and caps. I shall explain the eclipse to the men. Should it 
rain they will assemble in the drill-shed.' The sergeant major, having set 
down his commanding otHcer's instructions in writing as he had understood 
them, formed the company into hollow square at the conclusion of the morning 
drill, and read his version of the order to them thus: 'This afternoon a solar 
eclipse will take place in the barrack-yard, by order of the captain, and will be 



286 HISTORY OF 

atU'iided by the whole company, in fatigue jackets and caps. The captain will 
conduct the solar eclipse in person. Should it rain, the eclipse will take place 
ill the drill-shed.' ■' 

ANOTHER NEW "PAPER." 

The following item appeared in the Homestead of September 1st. 
"A Prolific County — Faribault. She has four newspapers and less 
than four thousand inhabitants. The Prairie Bugle is the style of the 
latest, and it is democratic. It hails from Wells, but one half of it is 
printed in Mower county and the other half in Milwaukee. It is a 
clever looking, seven column sheet, and reflects credit on the pro- 
prietors, Messrs. Wood and Cook, who are at present propelling the 
Austin Democrat. Democracy has now an organ through which to 
make itself heard at home, and we heartily wish the proprietors 
abundant success." 

THE HARVEST. 

About harvest time the country was visited by heavy rains, ac- 
companied by high winds. The result was a long and expensive 
harvest and great waste of grain in the handling. The summer was 
wet, short, and with the exception of a very few hot days, was quite 
cool. The wheat suffered somewhat, also, from blight and rust in 
this county, yet after all these unfavorable facts, the crop was 
large. The crop of oats was abundant, and notwithstanding the un- 
favorable season, corn yielded very well. 

The following quotation, relative to the crops of this year gen- 
erally, is taken from the South West of August 28th. 

"A year of plenty is the cheering intelligence that comes to us 
from all points of the country. The wheat crop has yielded far 
above the average — cotton promises to furnish more bales than have 
been produced since the war. In the west, except in a portion of 
Illinois, the corn stands well and gives assurance of a large harvest 
— in the middle and northern states all kinds of grain have done 
well and potatoes, the farmers say, are "too plenty to pay." In this 
county, however, that pestilent, destructive, stinking little bug, the 
Colorado beetle,or potato-bug. which had greatly injured our potato 
crop for several years, did much damage this year again " 

BAROMETRICAL. 

The early part of September was characterized by heavy rains, 
and about the middle of the month the waters became very high 
and the roads almost impassable. The first heavy frost of the season 
occurred on the night of September 26th. 

TEACHERS' INSTITUTE. 

The second State Teachers' Institute was held at Blue Earth 
City, commencing September 20th. The instructors were Hon. Mark 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 287 

H. Bunnell, state superintendent, Sanford Niles, county superin- 
tendent Olmstead county, and Prof. Carson, of Mankato. The in- 
stitute was an entire success, but owing to the impassable condition 
of the roads and streams, the attendance of teachers was not as full 
as it should have been. A great local interest was taken by the 
people of Blue Earth City in this institute, who by their hospitality 
and efforts to encourage all its meetings by their attendance and inter- 
est in the proceedings, and in furnishing good vocal and instru- 
mental music, at the evening meeting, did much toward rendering 
the institute a success. 

THE FAIR. 

The time of holding the fair having been changed, in was held 
at Blue Earth City, on the 6th and 7th days of October. The exhibi- 
tion of grain, vegetables and fruits was very good, but other 
departments were very poor, and the attendance not large. 

But little interest was manifested in the matter, which was 
owing to the fact that the farmers, generally, were at the time very 
busy in doing fall work, already long deferred on account of long 
continued rains. 

THE FALL CONVENTIONS AND ELECTIONS. 

The patriotic portion of the community, being those who were 
willing to accept office for the public good, concluded much earlier 
in the year than usual that the time had come to get the candidates 
in the field. Owing to various causes the "points" issue was now 
dead and the question of homestead taxation had been settled. But 
there was a governor and several state oflScers, a judge of the Dis- 
trict Court, for this judicial district, a senator and representative 
and a number of county officers to be elected, and several amend- 
ments of the constitution of the State to be adopted or rejected. 

In pursuance of a call the Republican County Convention was 
held at Blue Earth City on the twenty-eighth day of August, when 
the following nominations were made: 

For Treasurer — R. B. Johnson. 

For Sheriff— B. W. Barber. 

For County Attorney — J. H. Sprout. 

For Judge of Probate — J. A. Kiester. 

For Coroner — A. J. Rose. 

For Court Commissioner — J. A. Kiester. 
The convention was quite harmonious, and all the nominations 
were made by acclamation, except that of sheriff, over which there 
was some squabbling. 

Next came the Republican District Convention, which was held 
at Fairmont, Martin county, on the eighteenth day of September. 



288 HISTORY OF 

Mr. Wakefield, elected senator the preceding year, having been 
appointed receiver at the local land office, as stated above, resigned 
the office of senator, which rendered the election of another person 
to that office necessary to fill out the unexpired term. 

J. A. Latimer, of Painbault county was nominated as the repub- 
lican candidate for senator, and M. E. L. Shanks, of Martin county, 
for repi'esentative. 

The democratic party held a convention at Fairmont also, on 
the twenty-fifth day of September, and nominated for senator Moses 
King, and for representative Phillii) Huber. 

On the seventh day of October the Democratic County Conven- 
tion was held at Blue Earth City, and made the following nomina- 
tions for county officers: 

For Treasurer — Thos. S. Fellows. 
For Sheriff— P. B. Fezler. 
For Judge of Probate — D. H. Morse. 
For County Attorney — Richard Field. 
For Court Commissioner^T. C. Smith. 
For Coroner — Loyal Dudley. 

Mr. Field, soon after the convention, withdrew, and was not a 
candidate. 

Owing to the fact that Hon. Horace Austin, judge of the sixth 
judicial district, to which this county belonged, was the republican 
candidate for governor and had resigned the office of judge, the elec- 
tion of a district judge became necessary. A judicial district con- 
vention was therefore held at Mankato, October 19th, when Andrew 
C Dunn, of this county, was nominated as the republican candidate 
for that important office. 

The democracy made no nomination, and the Hon. Franklin H. 
Waite, of Blue Earth county, became an independent candidate for 
the judgeship. 

Notwithstanding, there was now a straight republican and a 
straight democratic county ticket in the field, there was some dissatis- 
faction in certain quarters, and so, to remedy the mistakes of the two 
parties in their nominations, a "People's Mass Convention" was called 
to assemble at Walnut Lake, October 23d, but the place of meeting was 
subsequently changed to Winnebago City. A convention was held 
at the time specified, but was not numerously attended. The result 
of the proceedings was the nomination of Hon. Patrick Kelley, of 
this county, for senator, and A. L. Patchin, of Martin county, for rep- 
resentative, and P. C. Seely was nominated for the office of sheriff. 
The nominees on the republican ticket for the other county offices 
were endorsed by this convention. 

As has already been said. Hon. Horace Austin, of Nicollet 
county, was the republican candidate for governor, and Hon. Geo. L. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 289 

Otis, of Ramsey county, was the democratic candidate for the same 
office. With this expose of the political field, we now proceed to 
announce the result of the battle. 

The decisive day, Nov. 2d, arrived, and when the shades of eve- 
ning closed the day, there were, in the ballot boxes, of this county, 
seven hundred and thirty-eight votes for Horace Austin, for gov- 
ernor, and for Geo. L. Otis, democratic candidate for governor, 
three hundred and seventy-five votes. For judge of the district 
court, Franklin H. Waite had seven hundred and seventy-six votes, 
and Andrew C Dunn had three hundred and thirty- three. 
For Senator: 

J. A. Latimer had of the votes 776 

Patrick Kelley 138 

Moses King 188 

For representative there were for: 

M. E. L. Shanks 482 

Phillip Huber 173 

A. L. Patchin 353 

For county offices the several candidates received the following 
number of votes: 

For county treasurer: 

R. B. Johnson had 934 

T. S. Fellows 207 

For sheriff: 

B. W. Barber had 524 

P. C. Seely 414 

P. B Fezler 189 

For county attorney: 

J. H. Sprout (no opposition) had 648 

For judge of probate: 

J. A. Kiester had 885 

D. H. Morse had 251 

For coroner: 

Loyal Dudley had 254 

A. J. Rose . 878 

For court commissioner: 

T. C. Smith had 253 

J. A. Kiester 814 

A. R. More was elected county commissioner for the first 
district. 

Austin was elected governor, Waite, district judge, and Latimer 
and Shanks were elected in tlie legislative district. 

The varieties of tickets used at this election were prodigious, 
and each candidate for a county or legislative office, wanted his 
name on each style of ticket. There was the "Regular Republican" 
ticket. "Regular Democratic," "Workingman," "Farmers," "Peo- 
ple's," "Split," "Bogus," and "Bummers," and other varieties too 
numerous to mention. 



290 HISTORY OF 



PRICES. 



Prices during the fall ranged as follows, wheat 70c, oats 35c, corn 
40c, potatoes 25c per bushel, flour *2.50 to ^3.00 per hundred. Wheat 
stood at an average of 60 to 70 cents most of the summer and fall, 
but at one time (in December) became as low as 53 cents, at Waseca, 
our railroad market at the time. 

And now the years record is completed, with the following 
quotation, from a popular and valuable work. 

"This year closes a most iruportant era in the history of the United States, 
and of the world. The account with the civil war was definitely closed, and the 
llnal seal set on the policy of reconstruction by the inauguration of Gen. Grant, 
president, and the continuance of the republican party in power by the people 
together with the re-adniission of most of the southern states and the possibi- 
lity of the reversal of the decision in regard to slavery done away by the adop- 
tion of the amendment to the constitution, giving the elective franchise to the 
colored population. Much emphasis was given to all these things by the pros- 
perity of the country and the rapid reduction of the debt, by the generally wise 
conduct of the southern people and the slowly increasing prosperity of that 
section. These results reacted in other countries to strengthen the tendency 
to freer and more popular governments, and seem, in some respects, to have in- 
troduced the era of republicanism." 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 291 



CHAPTER XVI. 

A. D. 1870. 

"Master, Master! news, old news, and such news as you never heard of." 

— Shakespeare. 

We have now reached another year of general accounting — a 
year of the national census. We have now grown to the stature of 
an important county in the State, and we step up upon a higher plain. 
Behind us is a period of fifteen years, with all their improvements, 
increase of population and accumulations. Among other things 
done during this time, many school houses were built, a number of 
church buildings erected, various societies formed, many public 
roads opened, and thousands of acres of land put under cultivation. 
And we now begin a-new decade, with considerable means to make 
great and valuable advances in the future. 

HERE THEY ARE AGAIN. 

In commencing the history of this year, it is necessary to state 
that the county commissioners assembled on the fourth day of Jan- 
uary, and proceeded to organize by electing Andrew R. More, Sr. 
chairman. 

They held subsequent meetings commencing March 24th, June 
30th and September 6th, but a careful examination of the record 
discloses nothing of historical value, the business done being simply 
of the ordinary routine character. 

In writing the annals of a people, or locality, where events 
of public interest should be stated, in chronological order, there 
is the constant repetition each year of certain public official oc- 
currences, of the same general tenor, which causes a sameness in 
the history of the several years, and becomes monotonous, but 
which cannot readily be avoided. Yet it may be remarked that 
while some of such events may not be of much interest to many 
persons, there are always some — those whose names are mentioned, 
or other actors in the events, who are interested in reading them. 
Many x-eaders of books understand the brainless "art of skipping," 
and when the reader of these annals strikes a paragraph of no inter- 
est, it would be advisable to "skip along." It maybe observed, 
generally, and should be remembered, that while some events 
chronicled in history, may be of little interest to one reader, they 
may be of great interest to another. 



292 HISTORY OF 



THE GItEAT AMENDERS. 



The twelfth State Legishiture assembled at the capitolJanuary 
4th and adjourned March 4tli. In the legislature of this year, 
our senator was J. A. Latimer, of this county, and our representative 
in the lower House was M. E. L. Shanks, of Martin county. The 
acts passed at this session having a special relation to this county, 
were the following: First. "An act to establish an additional term 
of the district court" in this county. 

Prior to this there was but one term of court held in the county 
annually, but the increasing business required an additional term. 
By this act the terms were set for the first Tuesday of January and 
the first Tuesday of .June in each year. 

Second. An act amendatory of the act of 1868, authorizing 
towns to vote aid to railroad companies. Third. An act confirm- 
ing the action and resolutions of the common council of Mankato 
* * * relative to the issue of bonds to the M. & N. W. 
R. R. Co., (now Minnesota Central) and the election held ratifying 
said resolution. 

To note here an important item in our rajlroad history and to 
understand the relevancy of the above act to this county, it is neces- 
sary to say, that the City of Mankato, in Blue Earth county, adjoin- 
ing this county on the north, had voted to issue to the railroad 
company above-named, 1^65.000 in bonds, for the purpose of aiding 
in the construction of a railroad from Mankato to Wells, in this 
county, and from a point on said route at, or near. Good Thunder's 
Ford to the Iowa state line, via Blue Earth City. The above act, as 
its title imports, was passed to confirm and legalize the proceedings. 
In connection with this same project, Mr. Drake, president of the 
St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad Company, had, in December of the 
preceding year, agreed to build the road from Good Thunder's Ford 
by way of Blue Earth City, to the Iowa state line, there to connect 
with a proposed road in Iowa, provided the several townships along 
the line of the road should vote a certain amount of aid in the shape 
of town bonds. One-half of the bonds voted by the City of Mankato 
was to apply on the Blue Earth City branch, as it was called. But 
the whole project, so far as this county was concerned, for some in- 
scrutable reason failed, and being a failure, it is not necessary to pur- 
sue the subject further here. 

THE FIRST RAILROAD. 

On the fifth day of .January, of this year, our first railroad, the 
Southern Minnesota, was laid across the east line of the county, and 
on that day the first train of cars which ever entered upon the soil 
of this county steamed in with noise and smoke, and on the thir- 
teenth day of the same month the road was ccmpleted to Wells, and 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 293 

on that day the first train of cars whistled, thundered and puffed 
into that village, amid loud exclamations of rejoicing. And now 
Wells was to be, for a brief period, the railroad market and com- 
mercial metropolis of the county. 

THE COUNTY PRESS. 

In the early part of January, the Prairie Bugle, to which some 
reference was heretofore made, ended its career, and its "stirring 
notes" ceased to be heard resounding over the prairies. But its 
place was taken by a more permanent and valuable journal, the 
Wells Atlas, which appeared about the twentieth day of January. It 
was published at Wells, in this county, by C. A. Lounsberry, form- 
erly of the Martin County Atlas, and was a seven column sheet, and 
very creditable in matter, typography and general appearance. The 
paper was republican in politics. We have not a copy of the first 
issue at hand to give exact dates and the introductory remarks of 
the editor. 

There were now four newspapers published in the county, the 
Soicth West and Post at Blue Earth City, the Free Homestead at Winne- 
bago City and the Atlas at Wells, certainly enough, considering the 
population, to enlighten the people on all subjects of public interest. 

A STORM— SPRING AND SEEDING. 

A terrific snow storm, attended with severe cold, occurred on 
the 14th, 15th and 16th days of March. The whole country was 
covered by immense banks and drifts of snow, in every direction. 
During this storm a Mrs. Bates and three small children were frozen 
to death in the town of Brush Creek, a more full account of which 
is given elsewhere. Others in this county and some in Martin and 
Jackson counties were badly frozen, and stock suffered severely. 

The spring opened and the ice in the streams began to break up 
and the waters to run, about the twenty-eighth day of March, and 
seeding commenced this year on the eighth of April. 

CHIPS AND SPLINTERS. 

(From the Homestead.) 

Feb. 16th. Wheat is "firm" at Wells, at flfty-two cents for No. One. A few 
mornings ago the mercury indicated 30 dei^rees below zero, the lowest it has been 
this winter. Now we are enjoying almost Indian summer weather and pretty 
good sleighing. 

March. There is no doubt whatever that the most prosperous section of 
our country, at this time, is in the south. Money is plenty there and keeps 
moving more lively than elsewhere. 

16th. The mails are delayed on account of the snow, and no news of the 
week has yet been received. 



294 BISTOHY (>F 

—License or no license. This (luostion will ho voted on, In Winnebago City, 
at the next town nieetinj; 

—As you pass along through life, he kind and sympathizing; bestow snilles 
and gentle words upon your fellow pilgrims. Thus you will bring happiness to 
you heart and strew your path with fadeless (lowers. 

—During the terrible storm of wind and snow, last Tuesday, a large eagle, 
measuring seven feet from tip to tip of his wings, descended, for protection 
against the weather, on the farm of Mr. S. Crandall. 

— Religious.- A few weeks since there was but one professing Christian 
among the business men of the city. Now they number thirteen, and oversixty 
persons in all have been converted in the revival meetings here. 

THE SUNDAY SCHOOL ASSOCIATION. 

On the first day of June of this year, "The Faribault County 
Sunday School Association and Institute," was formed at Winnebago 
City, by tlie adoption, at a public meeting called for the purpose, 
of a constitution and the election of officers. 

The object of the association is declared in the second article of 
the constitution to be, "For the awakening of a greater interest in 
the cause of Sunday schools, and a higher culture of teachers for 
the work." 

The board of officers consists of a president, two vice presidents, 
a secretary and treasurer. A committee is appointed at each meet- 
ing to prepare, in good season, a program of exercises, and make all 
necessary arrangements for the next meeting. 

The association is defined to be "a delegated body composed of 
five members from each school, which number shall include the pas- 
tor and superintendent of the respective schools." The minutes of 
this first meeting state that the convention was well attended and 
considerable interest was manifested throughout the session, which 
continued two days. 

The officers elected for the year were the Rev. J. D. Todd, pres- 
ident; D. B. Thurston and 0. A. Albee, vice-presidents, and C. J. 
Farley, secretary and treasurer. 

It appears that, for some reason, no meeting was held in 1871. 
The meeting held in 1872, is named the second annual meeting in 
the records of the association. The meetings were regularly held 
thereafter, annually, and constantly grew in interest and importance. 

At this first meeting, among other action taken, it was resolved 
to circulate in all the Sunday schools a temperance pledge and a 
pledge against profanity and the wse of tobacco. A peculiar and most 
valuable feature of the exercises at the several meetings, is the chil- 
dren's meeting, a time for which is set apart and to which all the 
children of the locality are invited and take part in certain exercises 
arranged for the occasion. 

The Minnesota State Sabbath School Association was organized 
in 1858, and holds an annual convention. The State, as well as the 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 295 

county societies, are entirely undenominational. Each county, or 
district society, is an auxilliary of the State society. 

Sunday schools were instituted at a very early day of the Chris- 
tian era, probably about the close of the second century. And all 
along down the centuries these schools h ave been known at various 
times, and in different countries, until the time of the institution of 
modern Sunday schools. It is said there was a Sunday school in 
Roxbury, Mass., in 1674, which was probably the first one in Amer- 
ica. But these schools were not such Sunday schools as we have 
now. They were not, as a rule, designed for religious instruction, 
but were intended to provide elementary instruction to the children 
of the poor who could not attend the day schools, or those who had 
no other time or opportunity of getting instruction. Modern Sun- 
day schools were originated by the Rev. Thomas Steck, of Glouces- 
ter, England, a clergyman of the Church of England, about the year 
1779 or 1780 and who, in the latter year, associated with himself, 
Robert Raikes, who reorganized the schools existing in his charge, 
and thei'eafter took the main care of the schools and the extension 
of the system, and has come to be recognized, and properly so, as 
the real founder of modern Sunday schools. It is not necessary 
here, or at this day, to give any description of the Sunday school 
system, or to present any arguments in its behalf, though there are 
those who question the methods used, and there are some who even 
doubt the value of the institution itself. 

Its adoption by all the religious denominations throughout 
Christendom, and its self-evident value as a means of moral and reli- 
gious instruction and discipline, is a sufficient answer to all objec- 
tions and are 

" Confirmations Strong 

As proofs of Holy Writ," 

Of the value of these schools. The Sunday school has been justly 
called, "the nursery of the church," and it is in them, at this day, 
that more than one-half of our young people, whether rich or poor, or 
whether the children of educated or illiterate parents, get most of 
their i-eligious knowledge and training — instruction which but for 
the Sunday school, many of them, owing to the neglect, or incom- 
petency of parents and others, would never get. 

It is, indeed, one of the most beneficdht institutions of modern 
times and is doing a great, a good work — one of incalculable value to 
the world. 

It is gratifying to know, also, as might have been reasonably 
supposed, that the Sunday school has met the approval and received 
the attention and labors, in almost every country, of men and women 
of the highest intellectual culture, of great moral worth and high 
position. And right here it may be said, for the profit of a certain 



296 HISTORY OF 

class of persons, who think themselves a little above the business 
of a Sunday school teacher, or who, because of the shallow knowl- 
edge they possess of this institution, affect to ridicule it, that many 
of the greatest and best men of this nation have taken a direct and 
personal interest in Sunday school work. That in Eagland, the 
late Lord Hatherley was a Sunday school teacher for forty years and 
that two of the Lord Chancellors — Lord Cairns and Lord Selborne, 
were both very attentive and efficient Sunday school teachers. 

THE FIUST SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN THE STATE. 

It appears, by reference to Neill's History of the State, that the 
first Sunday school in the State, and in fact, the first in the North- 
west, was instituted at Fort Snelling, in 1823. It was, however, but 
a temi^orary organization. 

The first permanent Sunday school in Minnesota was established 
at St. Paul, July 25th, 1847. "Seven scholars attended, and there 
was such a mixture of races among these that an interpreter was 
necessary, who could speak French, English and Sioux, before all 
could be made to understand the instructions given. The school in- 
creased to twenty-five scholars by the third Sunday * * « and 
finally became the Sabbath school of the First Baptist Church — so 
that said society claim to have the oldest Sunday school in Minne- 
sota." 

The first permanent Sunday school in this county — one which 
has continued to this day — was instituted in 1858, in the town of 
Pilot Grove, by several members of the Presbyterian church. A 
Sunday school was, however, held prior to this one. in Winnebago 
City township, the exact date of which cannot now be found, but this 
school did not long continue. It may, therefore, be said that the 
Pilot Grove school is, at least, the oldest existing Sunday school in 
the county. 

The number of Sunday schools in the county, their membership, 
the progress made by them, and the condition of the Sunday school 
work in the county, will be noted from time to time, in the accounts 
given in this work, of the meetings of the Association. 

And now, in concluding this subject here, the writer desires to 
express the most earnest hope that the Association may be greatly 
prosperous, that every pastor, superintendent, or other oflicer, and 
every teacher, in our Sunday schools, may be enlightened and guided 
by the Holy Spirit, in their noble work— a work beneficial to the 
State, as well as to the advancement of religion — a work which shall 
tell, not only in time, but in eternity, and which is indeed, and in 
truth, work done for the Master, and which shall at some time, and 
somewhere, receive its proper reward. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MTNNESOTA. 297 

JUSTICE. 

The June term of the District Court commenced its session on 
the seventh and continued nine days. This was the first term in this 
county at which one new judge, the Hon. Franklin H. Waits, pre- 
sided. No causes of special public interest were tried. 

What a dull item this is? Let us enliven it a little by relating 
a joke, not connected, indeed, with our court, but which was floating 
around in the newspapers of the time. A certain judge who was 
quite lenient and not noted for keeping very orderly courts, one day 
became quite impatient, owing to the noise and confusion, and sud- 
denly exclaimed, "Mr. Sheriff!" 

"What your honor," said the sheriff. 

"Try and keep a little order in the court room," said the judge, 
"here we have already committed four prisoners without hearing a 
word of the evidence." 

A HEATED TERM. 

The last three weeks of June were excessively warm, being the 
hottest term yet known in this county. During most of this time 
the thermometer ranged from 90" to 98° in the shade. The earth 
became parched, as there had been no rain for a considerable period, 
and the crops suffered severely, 

A NEWSPAPER CHANGE. 

Exit — The Free Homestead, on the eighth day of June, after a 
career of six years of considerable prominence and influence. Mr. 
Ed. A. Hotchkiss, retiring editor, favors his readers with probably 
the briefest valedictory on record. "To-day we are Ed. To mor- 
row we shall be Ex." — and bows himself off the editorial stage. 

Entre — A. E. Foss, June 23d, making a very graceful obeisance 
to the public and presenting The Winnebago City Press. 

THE ANNUAL, GLORIFICATION. 

Some reader might think the history of this year incomplete, 
should the statement be omitted that the fourth of July was cele- 
brated at Blue Earth City with appropriate ceremonies and patriotic 
ardor. The great charter was read by Prof. E. P. Bartlett, and an 
eloquent oration was delivered by Rev. C. A. Stine, of Mankato. 
The day was very pleasant and many people were in attendance. 
The newspapers seemed to intimate that two or three individuals, 
on this occasion, permitted their patriotism to degenerate into pat- 
riot-ism which was disgraceful, both to themselves and the day. It 
does not appear that the day was celebrated in a formal manner at 
any other place. 



298 HISTORY OF 

ANOTHER STORM. 

A memorable storm, the most severe of the summer, really a 
tempest of wind, rain and hail, occurred on the nineteenth day of 
July, coming up from the southwest. This tornado did much dam- 
age in the county, especially in the villages. Wells and Minnesota 
Lake suffered the most. At the former place several houses were 
blown over, others badly shaken. Roofs were blown off from many 
houses, and barns thi-own down, sign boards, fences and outhouses 
were, everywhere, damaged to a considerable extent. 

CUTTING THE GRAIN. 

The harvest of this year, which began in the last week of July, 
was not abundant. Wheat was light, averaging about ten bushels 
per acre. Barley and oats gave us about two-thirds the usual yield. 
The weather during harvest was exceedingly warm and sultry. 
The following remarks are quoted from the report of the commis- 
sioner of statistics, relative to the crops of 1870 : 

The ditTerence between good and Vjad farniinn was never, perhaps, more 
signally illustrated than by the results of agriculture in Minnesota, in 1870. 
With an auspicious season— when from seed lime until harvest the tempera- 
ture is favorable, the rains timely, and the approving heavens conjure the 
earth of her abundance, the blundurs and follii'S of the worst husbandry are 
corrected, and all alike rejoice in general abundance, but when the elements are 
perverse, and the struggling grain is beset with vicissitudes, the tost of the true 
farmer is assured. Such was the season of 1870. Its commencement was early 
and auspicious, and until the drought and heat began in June, the crops were 
everywhere alike promising. Then a difference in the fields began to manifest 
itself, which became more and more palpable as the season advanced. Those 
which had been deeply ploughed early the previous fall, withstood the dire 
beat and prolonged drought, and maintained their luxuriant vigor to the end, 
while the shallow fields, hastily ploughed in the spring, grew rapidly worse, 
and seemed literally to dry up and disappear. 

THE FIRST JAIL. 

During the course of this history allusion has been made sev- 
eral times to the action of the county authorities in reference to the 
building of a jail. It may now be stated that during the month of 
August, of this year, that useful institution was erected. It was a 
one-story frame building, sixteen feet by thirty feet in size. The 
north half of the building was fitted up for the purposes of a jail, 
and contained two sheet-iron cells. The south half was finished up 
as a residence for the turnkey. 

FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR. 

A brief space occurring here in our manuscript, it may be 
filled by the statement that during this year a great war was waged 
between France and Prussia. It was prosecuted upon a very large 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 299 

scale and with tremendous vigor, and was short and decisive. The 
Emperor, Napoleon III, of France, was defeated and taken prisoner 
by the Germans; his government was set aside by the people of 
France, who founded a republic. 

On the seventh day of September the French Republic was rec- 
ognized by the United States government. 

On the twenty eighth of January, of the next year, the city of 
Paris capitulated to the Germans, which ended the war, terms of 
peace being soon arranged, and on the first day of March following, 
the Germans made a triumphal entry into Paris. Many of our citi- 
zens were natives, respectively, of these two great nations, and of 
course took a deep interest in the progress and results of the war. 

A CHIMERA. 

During the summer an enterprise was broached and somewhat 
discussed, of dividing the counties of Faribault, Freeborn and Mar- 
tin, in such a manner as to make the village of Wells a central location 
for the county seat of a new county to be formed by the divisions 
proposed. The project was designed so as to leave Blue Earth 
City the county seat of what remained of the old county. The scheme, 
however, was not viewed favorably by any one except a few persons 
-in Wells, where it originated. It was "a fond thing vainly inven- 
ted," and was soon dropped as entirely imjpracticable. There was, 
also, considerable talk during the year in certain localities, in refer- 
ence to the removal of the county seat, which culminated in certain 
action which we shall notice hereafter. 

THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 

A few words must here be said in relation to the Agricultural 
Society. 

At the annual January meeting L. W. Brown, of Prescott, was 
elected president and A. A. Huntington, of Winnebago City, secre- 
tary. Yet it appears that notice was given of a meeting to be held 
at Winnebago City, June 4th, for the election of officers. Of the pur- 
port of this it is not now profitable to inquire. 

The fair was held at Winnebago City on the 22d and 23d days of 
September. There was considerable jealousy existing at the time 
between the several villages relating to the society, and much gen- 
eral dissatisfaction as to the affairs of the society, all of which 
tended to interfere with its success, and as a result the fair of this 
fall was not encouraging. 

In connection with the subject in hand, it should be recorded as 
a matter of history that there existed at the time of which we write, 
and for a number of subsequent years, a growing inclination among 
the farmers throughout the country generally, and to some extent in 



300 HISTORY OF 

this county, to leave the farm and crowd into the towns and cities. 
under the supposition that life was easier and better there than 
on the farm. 

The extent to which this disposition has pervailed and now pre- 
vails, is much greater in some localities than in others. The old 
fashioned quiet contentment with farm life, seems, with many, to 
have passed away for some reason. There are doubtless a number 
of causes which are operating to bring about such a result, in var- 
ious localities, but without attempting to enumerq,te, or speculate, 
as to the causes, or prescribe a remedy, we shall quote here a very 
appropriate article somewhat humorous as well as practical, from 
that curious paper, Perk's Sun, (Milwaukee, Wisconsin). 

THE farmer's mistake. 

"An exchange speaks of the departure of an old settler to Dakota, where 
he will take up a quarter section of land and start again in life at the age 
of 70. The man had a nice farm near a splendid town, where he had lived and 
brought up a family. He got tired of farming, sold the farm for 80,000, moved 
to town and went into the livery V)usiness, and in three years went through 
everything except a team and lumber wagon, and now he has packed and gone 
to Dakota, with a heart lieavier than his pocket-ljo(jk, and he will die out there. 
The number of farmers who decide to go to town to live, every year, and go into 
business, is appalling. Every town has them, and nine out of ten become 
poor. They get an idea that town business men are the happiest people on 
earth and have an easy time, and they get to brooding over their hard life, and 
they think any body can run a store, a grocery, or livery stable, and they sell 
out the farm and go into the grocery business because it seems so easy to weigh 
out sugar and tea. They can always tlnd a grocery man who will sell the re- 
mains of his sick stock of groceries for ready cash, and when the farmer first 
sees his name over the door of a grocery he feels as though he was made, and he 
puts his thumbs in the armholes of his vest. The farmer's girls and boys rea- 
lizing that they are merchant's sons and daughters, instead of farmer's, have 
to keep up with the procession. There have to be things bought as merchants 
that would never he thought of as farmers The farmers furniture is not good 
enough, the democratic wagon gives place to a carriage, the old mares gives 
place to high steppers, and the girls dress better and do not work. The family 
lives out of the grocery, the boys play base ball and the girls go to big parties. 
The farmer is a good fellow and trusts many other good fellows who can't pay, 
and in some cases he gets to drinking. Bills begin to come in, and he can't 
collect enough to pay rent. Friends that would help him out with money are 
mighty scarce, and he will have to give a chatlle mortgage on the stock. The 
stock runs down until there is nothing but a red tin can of mustard with a bull's 
head on it, some canned peaches and cove oysters on the shelves, a few boxes 
of wooden clothes-pins, six wagonloada of barrels with a little sugar in the 
bottom, a couple of dozen washboards, a l)ox of codfish of the vintage of 1860, 
which smells like a gUie factory, a show-case full of three cent wooden pocket 
comlis and blueing, hair pins and shaving soap, some empty cigar boxes, that 
the boys have smoked the cigars out of, and a few such things that do not 
bring enough at an auction to pay for printing the auction bills. Then the 
farmer breaks up and goes west, leaving a lot of bills in the hands of the law- 
yer for collection, who manages to collect enough to pay his commission, and 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 301 

the family, once so happy on the farm, and as independent, becomes demor- 
alized, the girls marry chambermaids in livery stables rather than go west, the 
boys go to driving haclf or worlcing on a threshing machine, or tending bar, 
and refuse to go west; and the old folks go to Dalcota alone and wish they were 
dead, and will be quick enough. This is the history of thousands of farmers 
who get tired of the old farm. If they would but realize that they were better 
fixed than nine-tenths of the merchants in town, and they can not become 
successful merchants any more than merchants can become successful farmers, 
they would be learning something that would be valuable to them. 

THE POTATO-BUG. 

The potato has become a very important article of diet, with 
many nations. It is easy of iiroduction, always healthful, conven- 
ient and desirable. No other vegetable can fill its place. A well- 
set table seems to lack something if potatoes, in some form, are not 
present. The old and the young alike are fond of them. Who ever 
saw a boy who did not like fried potatoes and gravy. While it is an 
important item of food with the rich, it is almost indispensable with 
the poor. Its scarcity is a great calamity. All nationalities are the 
friends of the potato. The American is proud of it as a native pro- 
duction. The Frenchman must have his Pomme de Terre, the Irish- 
man his 'praties," the German his kartofle. This valuable vegetable, 
of the finest quality, is usually produced in great abundance in this 
county, and at one time Minnesota was famous for its fine potatoes, 
large quantities of which were exported. 

Some allusion has been heretofore made, in the course of this 
history, to the ravages of the potato-bug in this county for a num- 
ber of years. Nothing, not even the rot, has ever been so destruc- 
tive to the potato crop, and so much to be dreaded as the pota- 
to-bug. 

The native habitat or home of this insect, more properly named 
the Colorado potato-beetle, has been found to be in the canyons and 
high table-lands of the Rocky Mountains. It began its eastward 
march from Colorado about 1859 or 1860, and in about fifteen years, 
spread over the whole potato-growing sections of the United States 
and Canada, being the most numerous and destructive in the north- 
ern portions of the country. They reached the Atlantic States in 
1874, and the seaboard in 1875, and finally passed over to Europe, 
where they did great injury and created much alarm. Among the 
first of the European countries to be attacked, was Ireland, in which 
country, more than in all others, the potato is useful and esteemed. 
And about that time some newspaper itemizer, forgetting the 
seriousness of this matter, wrote that "The potato bug has always 
been bad enough, goodness knows, but think of his coming back to us 
with a brogue and a shillalah!" Many methods were used to destroy 
these insects and protect the potatoes, but the most effectual proved 



302 HISTORY OF 

to be the use of paris-green. either in the dry powder, sprinkled 
upon the vines when the dew was on, or in the form of a liquid, that 
is, the green mixed with water and sprinkled over the vines. But 
no method appeared to be entirely successful in destroying them. 
In this year (1870) also, these vermin were very destructive in this 
county, but it was the last year of their reign here. Another bug — 
a mightier bug than the potato bug, in the capacity of its stomach 
and appetite, if that were possible — a bug that had a long bill, or 
nib, and that cared nothing for potatoes appeared, looking about 
for potato-bugs, and the pests of years disappeared silently and 
quickly, not standing upon the order of their going, and every lover 
of that healthy esculent said heartily with the Irishman, "Bad luck 
go wid ye, ye bastes." 

DELAVAN. 

On the 10th and 11th days of October, a new town site was sur- 
veyed and another village founded in this county. It was located on 
section 36, in town 104, of range 27, on the line of the Southern 
Minnesota Railroad, and was named "Delavan." This was the fifth 
village in the county, according to number and age. A fuller 
reference to this village will be found elsewhere in this work. 



RAILROADS AGAIN. 

All the former projects and efforts to secure a north and south 
railroad through the county having failed, a new proposition to 
build a road was now submitted to the people of Blue Earth City 
and the adjoining towns, by the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Min- 
nesota Railroad Company. The substance of this proposition was 
that, if the several towns interested should vote to the company 
$85,000 in town bonds, running twenty years and bearing seven per 
cent interest, donate to the company forty acres of land adjoining 
the village of Blue Earth City, and secure the right of way from the 
Iowa state line from the point where the road should cross the line 
to Blue Earth City, the company would extend their road to that 
village, completing it to that point by the first day of December, 
1872. The proposition was made in good faith, no doubt, and was 
so accepted. The bonds were voted, mainly in October, the amount 
required being so nearly secured that it was satisfactory, the vote 
in the several towns was formally accepted by the company, the 
forty acres of land was contracted for and the right of way mainly 
obtained. 

A preliminary survey of the route was completed to Blue Earth 
City on the twenty-sixth day of November, and was found practic- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 303 

able and easy of construction, and now, to dispose of this project, 
it is sufficient to say, the road was not built into this county. 

"I never had a piece of bread. 
Well butter'd, nice and wide, 
But fell upon the sanded floor, 
And on the butter'd side." 

A POLITICAL SATURNALIA. 

The time has now arrived to give some account of the most 
bitter, exciting and, we may well add, the most disgraceful polit- 
ical contest ever known in the annals of this county. 

And first it is necessary to show when and how the candidates 
were placed in the field. 

On the tenth day of September, the democracy held a conven- 
tion at Blue Earth City and made the following nominations: 

For Senator — Moses King. 

For Representative — Harlow Seeger. 

For County Auditor — George Barnes. 

For Register of Deeds — C. L. Chase. 

Mr. Chase did not, however, remain a candidate. 

The republicans held a convention on the eighth day of October 
at Blue Earth City. The convention was very fully attended and 
was characterized by much strife. 

W. W. White was nominated for county auditor and J. R. Sis- 
son for county surveyor. 

Thirteen formal ballots were taken for register of deeds, there 
being three candidates for the nomination, but as neither candidate 
could secure a majority of the whole vote, no nomination was made. 
Ten delegates, over whom there was a hot contest, where chosen to 
represent this county in the Legislative District Convention. 

These delegates were understood to be favorable to the nomi- 
nation of Geo. W. Whallon, of Blue Earth City, for senator, and 
Geo. C. Chamberlin, of Jackson, for representative. 

On the eleventh day of October, another county convention, 
called the "People's Convention" assembled at Winnebago City. 
This convention formally nominated W. W. White for auditor, J. R. 
Sisson for surveyor, and Frank Lent for register of deeds. At this 
convention also, ten delegates were elected to represent this county 
in the Legislative District Convention. These latter delegates were 
understood to be favorable to the nomination of C. W. Thompson, of 
Wells, for senator, and A. L. Patchia, of Martin county, for repre- 
sentative. The legislative district was, at the time, composed of the 
counties of Faribault, Martin, Jackson, Nobles, Cottonwood, Mur- 
ray, Pipestone and Rock. 



304 HISTORY OF 

The district convention for the nomination of candidates for 
senator and representative, assembled at Fairmont, Martin county, 
on the twelfth day of October. 

Two sets of minutes of the proceedings of this convention, each 
signed by a chairman and secretary, were published as official. 

It appears by the one report, that H. J. Neal, one of the dele- 
gates chosen by the regular county convention of this county, called 
the meeting to order, and was thereupon elected chairman, and J. 
W. Cowing, of Jackson, secretary, and then Geo. W. Whallon was 
nominated as the candidate for senator, and Geo. C. Chamberlin. for 
representative, after which the convention adjourned. 

By the other report it appears, that A. Fancher. of Martin 
county, was chosen chairman and A. E. Foss, of this county, secre- 
tary, whereupon C. W. Thompson was nominated as the candidate 
for senator, and A. L. Patchin for representative. Several resolu- 
tions were then adopted, after which the convention adjourned. 

The fact was that each party was determined to nominate its 
candidates, at all events, and that both conducted their proceedings 
at the same time and place, the Thompson party continuing their 
proceedings for a short time after the Whallon party had adjourned. 

We shall not attempt to determine the legality of either set of 
nominations, as the legality, or regularity of the proceedings, does 
not appear to have been a matter of much consequence to either set 
of delegates. 

About this time, Geo. A. Weir was announced as an indepen- 
dent candidate for county surveyor, and Fred P. Brown, as an inde- 
pendent candidate for register of deeds. 

A congressman was also to be elected this fall, and the candi- 
dates were, Mark H. Bunnell, of Steele county, republican, andC. F. 
Buck, of Winona county, democrat. 

The campaign was exceedingly earnest, bitter and personal. 
The contest was upon the offices of senator and representative in 
the district, and the office of register of deeds in this county. The 
entire district was closely canvassed, many meetings were held and 
many a country school house rang with turgid eloquence. At some 
of these meetings, the champions of both sides met, when words, 
hot and high, were heard for hours. 

The real issues of this campaign, so far as the district was con- 
cerned, were not men and politics, but were, first, the rivalrj' of 
interests of the several localities, or villages in this county; sec- 
ondly, the division of the 500,000 acres of State "internal improve- 
ment lands," among the railroad companies of the State, which it 
was designed to attempt at the next session of the legislature, of 
which Mr. Thompson desired to get a portion in aid of the roads in 
which he was interested, while Mr. Whallon and his friends were look- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 305 

ing after like intei*ests in behalf of their localities, and thirdly, but 
not least, so far as concerned Blue Earth City, the county seat ques- 
tion, in this county, was believed to be deeply involved in this elec- 
tion and, of course, awakened all the energies of Blue Earth City, 
and several other localities. Besides all these considerations a 
United States senator was to be elected at the next session of the 
legislature. The Winnebago Oity Press and Wells Atlas ta,voTed Messrs. 
Thompson and Patchin. The Blue Earth City Post sustained Messrs. 
Whallon and Chamberlin, and the South-West spoke favorable of 
both republican tickets, but did not take a decided stand for either. 
The election was held on the eighth day of November, and the 
following was the result in this county, as appears from the official 
canvass: 

TOTALS. 

For Congress— M. H. Dunnell, 1606; C. F. Buck, 607. 

State Senator— G. W. Whallon, 1246; Moses King, 40; C. W. 
Thompson, 917. 

Representative — G. C. Chamberlin, 1168; H. Seeger, 146; A. L. 
Patchin, 899. 

Auditor— W. W. White, 1669; Geo. Barnes, 532. 

Register— F. Lent, 1099; F. P. Brown, 1039. 

Surveyor— G. A. Weir, 1489; H. Sisson, 717. 

Henry J. Neal was elected county commissioner for District No. 
2, and L. C. Seaton for District No. 3, and Mark H. Dunnell was 
elected representative in congress of this, the first congressional 
district. 

But the matter of chief interest was not yet decided. The votes 
for senator and representative in the entire legislative district, com- 
posed of the counties above named, were yet to be canvassed. As 
this county was the senior county in the district, the votes of the 
other counties were required by law to be returned to the auditor of 
this county to be canvassed, by a board designated by law, and was 
composed as follows: 

W. W. White, Auditor of Faribault county. 

C. Chamberlin, Auditor of Cottonwood county. 
M. A. Strong, Auditor of Jackson county. 

J. A. Armstrong, Auditor of Martin county. 

J. A. Kiester, Judge of Probate, Faribault county. 

D. F. Goodrich, Justice of the Peace, Faribault county. 

The canvassing board met on the third day of December, at 
Blue Earth City. 

Never before, or since, for that matter, was such an intense in- 
terest manifested in the canvass of any vote in the county. Gross 
frauds were charged to have been practiced by both parties, and the 
vote was known to be very close. 



306 HISTORY OF 

There was a jri'eat attendance of citizens at the oflBce of the 
county auditor. Mr. Thompson, with his attorneys. Messrs. Losey, 
of La Crosse, Wis., and Dunn, of this county, with many friends, 
were present. Mr. Whalion and his friends were also in attendance. 
After much discussion, the raising of many objections and the read- 
ing of considerable law applicable to the subject in hand, the board 
duly considered the matter, and finally certified to the following 
canvass. 

For senator, Geo. W. Whalion had 1684 votes, and C. W. Thomp- 
son had 1609 votes, and Moses King had 87 votes. For representa- 
tive, Geo. C. Chamberlin had 1640 votes, A. L. Patchin 1565, and 
H. Seeger had 192. Whallon's majority over Thompson was 75, 
Chamberlin's over Patchin was 75. 

But Messrs. Thompson and Patchin were not satisfied, and very 
soon notices were served upon Messrs. Whalion and Chamberlin, by 
Thompson and Patchin, that the election of the former would be con- 
tested, and that testimony would be taken on the matter of the senator- 
ship at Winnebago City, on the twenty-first day of December, before C. 
A. Louusberry and S. J. Abbott, justices of the peace, and in the case 
of therepresentativeship, before the same officers, at the same place, 
on the twenty-third day of the same month. 

M. J. Severance and C. K. Davis were employed as counsel by 
Whalion And Chamberlin, and Messrs. Losey, of La Crosse, Wis., J. 
M. Gilman, of St. Paul, and A. C. Dunn, of this county, were re- 
tained as counsel by Thompson and Patchin. 

The following is a brief summary of the points made by Thomp- 
son and Patchin, and the counterpoints. 

1st. That the ballot box used at the election, on the eighth 
day of November, at Blue Earth City, was stuffed with illegal and 
fraudulent votes, to the number of two hundred, and that all of said 
illegal votes contained the names of G. W. Whalion for senator, and 
G. C. Chamberlin for representative. 

2d. That a fraudulent poll list was used, containing two hun- 
dred names of persons not residing in the election district. 

3d. That not more than three hundred legal voters reside in 
Blue Earth City precinct, and to conceal the fraudulent voting, the 
poll lists were fraudulently taken from the offices of the county 
auditor and town clerk. 

It was also charged that thirty illegal votes were cast in the 
town of Emerald. 

The substance of the counterpoints was that many illegal votes 
were cast at Wells and in several other election districts for Messrs 
Thompson and Patchin, and that Mr. Thompson was not a resident 
of the State, and consequently ineligible to the office of senator. 



FAIUBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 307 

Soon after meeting and organization, the court adjourned to 
Blue Earth City, when, after a session of eight days, during which 
many witnesses were examined, and their testimony reduced to writ- 
ing, the court finally adjourned. 

In the investigation of these matters, a very great difiSculty soon 
presented itself. The poll lists of Blue Earth City election district 
could not be found. The papers pertaining to the town clerk's office 
were, for convenience, kept in a "candle box," and one copy of the 
poll list should have been found in it, but the box was searched very 
closely, yet the list was not found, and the clerk could give no infor- 
mation as to what had become of it. 

The duplicate list, required by law, to be filed in the office of the 
county auditor, was so filed, but that list, also, mysteriously disap- 
peared and could nowhere be found, it having been taken from the 
office without the auditor's knowledge. 

Thei'efore, not knowing the names on the poll lists, it was impos- 
sible to prove directly that the persons whose names were on the 
list, and had voted, were not legal voters. It was, therefore, sought 
to be shown, by the testimony of the witnesses, the number of legal 
votes in the town, and that the vote cast was greatly in excess of 
what it should be. 

But one illegal vote was proved directly, as cast for Whallon and 
Chamberlain, and that was confessed, the voter lacking only a few 
days of the four months' residence in the State, required by law. 
Five illegal votes were shown to have been cast at Wells, which 
were doubtless cast for Thompson and Patchin. 

Mr. Thompson himself was placed on the witness stand, as to 
the question of his residence. The general tenor of his testimony 
was quite unfavorable as to his eligibility as a candidate. 

Although but few votes cast at this election were proven to be 
illegal, yet it must be admitted that there were illegal votes cast at 
Blue Earth City and at several other places for Whallon and Cham- 
berlain, and that the poll books of Blue Earth City election district 
mysteriously and criminally disappeared. It must also be as readily 
admitted that there were illegal votes cast at Wells and at several 
other places for Thompson and Patchin. 

But just how many such votes were cast for either candidate, in 
what manner the frauds were perpetrated and upon whom the odium 
of such outrages upon the purity of the ballot box should be cast, 
will probably never be known. The final result of all this turmoil, 
excitement and expense, is recorded in the history of the next year. 
It is gratifying to state that this was the first known instance of 
election frauds perpetrated in this county; that but comparatively 
few persons had any part in them, and that when the excitement of 
the time passed away, the great majority of the people denounced 
such action severely. 



308 insTonv of 

In a free fjoverninent like that under which we live, where the 
source of all power and authority is the people and the ballot box, 
the means by which they indicate their wishes, frauds by which the 
expressed wishes of the majority are nullified, or defeated, consti- 
tute a crime of great magnitude, and should meet with universal exe- 
cration and certain and condign punishment. 

Our election laws throughout the whole country, to this date at 
least, seem to have been made on the assumption that all electors 
were honest and patriotic, and the great majority were, and are so, 
but it must be admitted that there were, and now are, a great many 
rascals abroad in the world, especially in the cities, and it would 
seem, occasionally in the country districts also, who would take 
advantage of the simple and loosely constructed laws to practice the 
greatest frauds upon the people. And the vast importance to the 
continued existence of our free institutions, of great reforms in our 
election laws, began, at about this period, to be realized by the peo- 
ple, and they began to inquire what regulations could be framed by 
which fair and honest elections might be secured. Election laws 
must be framed upon the assumption that there are a great many 
ingenious scoundrels living, everywhere, who are ready to corrupt 
the voter, invade and vitiate the ballot box itself, and pervert the 
will of the people if there is any possible chance of doing so. 

While treating of the subject of elections, the writer may be 
excused for offering a few further suggestions on the subject of 
voting and its importance. 

The theory of our government is that the people rule; that here 
exists self-government, citizen sovereignty. But every citizen can- 
not be invested with office and have a scepter placed in his hands. 
The method, therefoi'e. by which the people rule themselves, politi- 
cally, is mainly by the exercise of the elective franchise, or the right 
to vote. In the exercise of this right they choose representatives 
to frame constitutions and enact laws, and others to determine, in 
cases of dispute, what, in any particular case, the law is, and others 
to execute the laws. 

By this means the people also indicate, in a great measure, 
what they desire the policy of the government, state or national, 
shall be. in various matters of public interest. Certain public poli- 
cies, or political principles acted upon bj' the government, may 
result in great progress, prosperity and happiness, and the elevation 
of the standards of good citizenship, among the people, while cer- 
tain other political views and theories, if carried into practical 
ai)plication, may paralyze progress and all industries, create large 
indebtedness, disorder the currency, cause bankruptcies among 
business men. reduce labor to idleness and beggary, and even seri- 
ouslj- degrade the moral tone and the patriotic impulses of the 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 309 

people of the nation. Every ^governmental act affects every citizen 
to some extent. But wrong policies, erroneous action in public 
affairs are dangerous, not only as regards the nation, but also, of 
course, to the state, the county, the township and school dis- 
trict; and the voter is not only interested in the principles to be 
pursued, or the action to be taken, but also in the men who are to fill 
the offices. Men must be selected who are competent and honest. 
There are some men in almost every community who are, because of 
incompetency, or lack of moral principle, unfit to be placed in any 
public office, and just such men are sometimes candidates for office, 
and this class of candidates usually rely much on the gullibility of 
the people. As a rule, the man Who has proved himself a failure, 
or a rascal, in his private life, is very likely to prove such in office, 
whatever his promises may be. Sooner or later his real character 
will appear, to the public detriment. The voter must pass upon 
these questions also, and should inform himself as to the real char- 
acter of candidates. It is undoubtedly true, that the right to vote, the 
duty of voting are, by many, greatly uader estimated. There are 
many voters who do not think it of much importance to vote, and 
frequently neglect to do so. Voters have been heard to excuse 
themselves from attending an election by the remark, "Well, one 
vote will not make any difference," yet in the history of our govern- 
ment, national and state, one single vote has on a number of occa- 
sions, determined great policies, changed anticipated results, or 
decided who should hold office. Several instances may be named: 

The lack of one more vote saved President Johnson from im- 
peachment. 

A majority of one vote in the Electoral Commission practically 
made Mr. Hayes President of the United States. 

A majority of one vote once elected a governor of the State of 
Massachusetts. 

A famous United States Senator was reelected by a majority of 
one vote, and that one vote was given by a member of the legisla- 
ture who had himself been elected by a majority of one vote. 

Coming to our own State, Senator C. K. Davis was re elected by 
the legislature by a majority of one vote, on joint ballot. 

There are also some voters who are so ignorant, or corrupt, or 
both, as to sell their votes, while in some sections of the country 
certain classes of voters are sent to the polls to exercise this right 
as an employer, or a ward boss, or some one else may dictate, and 
in some other localities, numbers of electors are not permitted to 
vote at all. 

It is well to think occasionally of the real character and import- 
ance of the right to vote. It is one of the highest, most dignified, 
most honorable and most necessary of the rights of a free citizen. 



310 HISOTJIY OF 

This political right, more than any other, makes the distinction be- 
tween a monarchial, or despotic, and a free government. 

And it is literally true that millions of men, through the ages 
past, have perished in the struggle for those civil liberties, of which 
the right to say how they should be governed was one of the great- 
est. There may here be added to what has already been said of the 
value and importance of the elective franchi.se, the following further 
considerations: 

In the first place, it is well known, but not always fully recog- 
nized, that the right to vote is greatly limited as to the number who 
are invested with the right, or, in other words, that but few of the 
great mass of the people, who are interested in the atfairs of the 
town, county, state or nation, are permitted to vote. Only about 
one-sixth of the population, of any voting district, practically do the 
voting, and often a less number, for there are always some who are 
entitled to vote who fail lo do so. Thus, if the nation has a popula- 
tion of 60.000.000. about 10,000,000 of voters, practically, determine 
who shall be president and vice president, and the general policy of 
the government. 

If our State has a population of 1,500,000, then only about 
250,000 vote on the questions of who shall be our State officers and 
decide other State affairs, which may be submitted to the people. 
If our county has 18.000 inhabitants, then about 3,000 votes .settle the 
question of who shall till our county offices and decide other impor- 
tant interests. 

Now these facts imply thatevery voter exercises the right to vote, 
not only in his own behalf, individually, but he votes, also, in behalf 
of five or six other persons, equally interested with himself. The 
right to vote thus* becomes a great trust, to be exercised for, not 
only the voter's own good, but for the welfare of many others, who 
cannot vote. 

But this is not all the responsibility which rests upon the voter. 
He decides, by his vote, the principles and policies that shall obtain, 
not only for the present, but, perhaps, for the future, for many 
years, thus making that country (state or locality) and its conditions 
of success, or failure, in which his children, probably, or his kin- 
di'ed, are to live and labor, long after he may be dead. The des- 
tinies of this great state, and the greater nation, of which we have 
the honor to be citizens, rests in the hands of the voters. 

And the school district, the township, the county, the state and 
the nation have the right to demand of every one invested with this 
great franchise, that he exercise the right; they are entitled to his 
judgment in the affairs of the public, and to be intelligently and con- 
scientiously expressed by his vote. To vote is the duty of every 
elector, as well as his right, and he who feels that he has voted ac- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 311 

cording to the noble sentiment "For God and home and native land," 
has done well. And the man who would permit his vote to be dic- 
tated by another, or who would sell his vote, is unfit to be a free 
citizen, and should be disfranchised. And the man who would seek 
to corrupt a voter, or to deceive him, or by fraud, attempt to annul, 
or pervert the expressed will of the people, deserves not only dis- 
franchisement, but imprisonment. 

MURDER. 

A murder was committed at Wells, on the 4th day of November. 
This was the fourth homicide in the county. The facts in the case, 
briefly stated, are about as follows. A number of Swedes and Nor- 
wegians under the influence of intoxicating liquors got into a street 
brawl when one Nels Hast stabbed or cut one Ole Olsen in the neck. 
Olsen died in a few minutes. Hast was immediately arrested and 
was finally tried at the June term, of 1871. 

"The Great King of Kings 
Hatii in the table of Ilis law Commanded, 
That thou shalt do no Murder."— S/iafcespcare. 

ANOTHER NEWSPAPER. 

On the ninth day of December, the first number of The Wells 
Real Esiaie Advertiser appeared. It was published at Wells, in this 
county, by Messrs. Chase and Hall. Wells could now boast of two 
newspapers. The Advertiser was a four page, seven column sheet. 
We copy the salutatory. 

"We present you, readers, with the Wells Advertiser. It means business. It 
is a permanent institution in Faribault county, fixed to stay. At present we 
shall publish it monthly, more frequently when it will pay to do so. Our aim 
shall be to benefit the entire community, not forgetting ourselves. We shall 
do a good deal of blowing, and being free-born, half white, andwhnlly independ- 
ent, expect to say a good many things that will make others blow. Our motto 
is "Advertise." We have got some things to sell and propose to let It be 
known, hence our name. In politics we are going for the best man and the 
county seat. If any body wants a row. let them punch us, if a farm, or village 
lot, come and see us." 

This is pith and point, but not much pathos. It may be added, 
that after the publication of two or three numbers of this paper, 
it "blew" itself out. 

THE GENERAL RECKONING. 

In this year the ninth national census was taken. The work 
was done in this county, during the months of June and July. 

S. P. Childs, of Blue Earth City, was the assistant United States 
Marshall, appointed for the south half of the county, and A. A. 
Huntington, of Winnebago City, for the north half, to do the work 
of taking the census. 



312 



HISTORY OF 



As this is another year of general reckoning and posting up of 
accounts, in the history of our county, a record is here made of all 
the valuable statistics of the year. The quotations from the census, 
the agricultural productions, the assessed value of property in the 
several towns, and the other items of interest given, make up a very 
complete exhibit. But it must be again stated, that the value of 
some of these statistical collections is not great. It is found that 
those compiled from the census differ considerably from those taken 
from the State reports. We cannot here attempt to explain the 
causes of these discrepancies. The statistics are given here as they 
are found recorded in the books of authority on the subject. 

TABLE NO. 1— POPULATION. 

Number of male inhabitants in the county .'),274 

Number of females 4,672 

Total number of inhabitants y,94G 

As to the nativity of the inhabitants, there were born in the 
United States, 7,453; in Norway, 821; in Germany, G80; Canada, 431; 
Ireland, 195; England, 150; Scotland. 74; Prance, 44; Denmark, 32; 
Sweden, 20; Wales, 17: Holland, 8; Switzerland, 3; other countries, 
18. By the census of 18G0, the county ranked as No. 29 in popula- 
tion, but by the census of this year as No. 19. 

The population per square mile was, in 1870, 13.81. 

TABLE NO. 2— LIVE STOCK. 

Horses, 2,996; mules, 110; milch cows, 3,298; working oxen 
1,401; other cattle, 3,447; sheep, 4,037; hogs, 3,311. 



TABLE NO. 3— FAUM PRODUCTS OF 1870. 

Acres. Bushels. 

Wheat 32,678 343,546 

Oats 11,470 .•!2:J,I74 

Corn ,"),497 l,JI,3;i3 

Barley 1,618 29,868 

Rye 16 106 

Buckwheat 170 1,985 

Potatoes 314 11,635 

Beans 117 1,417 

Tame hay 237 306 tons. 

Wild hay 17,243 23,208 tons. 

Sorghum 48 2,947 gals, syrup. 

Wool ; 10,778 lbs. 

Butter 188,490 lbs. 

Cheese 11,320 lbs. . 

Honey 2.025 lbs. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 313 

TABLE NO. 4— VALUATIONS. 

The following table exhibits the total assessed value of all the 
Real and Personal Estate in each township in the county for the 
year 1870: » 

Total. 

Seely & Kiester $65,050 

Rome 21,059 

Elmore 64,677 

Pilot Grove 26,266 

Foster 58,910 

Brush Creek 35,711 

Emerald 77,816 

Blue Earth Ci ty 223,444 

Jo. Daviess 69,829 

Clark 130,564 

Walnut Lake 46,435 

Barber 61,979 

Prescott 83,230 

Verona 103,966 

Dunbar 56,713 

Minnesota Lake 63,910 

Lura 62,8.36 

Guthrie 83,479 

Winnebago City 160,822 



$1,495,705 
TABLE NO. 5 — MISCELLANEOUS. 

The number of farms in the county, in 1870, was 1,474. The 
number of dwelling houses, 1,911. There were 199 births and 88 
deaths during the year. As this was the first year in which returns 
of births and deaths were required by law to be made, and the 
matter was not well understood, the returns made were quite im- 
perfect. 

There were five grist mills in the county, one a steam mill, two 
propelled by water, and two by wind power. 

There were in this year eighty-two marriages, and in five years, 
including 1870, six divorces, there being three in this year. 

SCHOOL STATISTICS FOR 1870. 

The following statistics and remarks are taken from Mr. Rich- 
ards' first reports, as superintendent of schools: 

No. of school districts 90 

No. of school houses 79 

No. of scholars 3,529 

Eighty-one per cent of these attended school during the year. 
The graded schools at Blue Earth City and at Winnebago City, are 
doing good work. The county is well represented at the State Nor- 
mal School at Mankato. The deportment of pupils is generally 



314 HISTORY OF 

good. Twelve public examinations of teachers were held in the 
county. One hundred and five certiticates were issued to teachers. 
There was paid to teachers during the year, ^15,123.00. Nine new 
school houses were built, costing ^3,590,00. These facts and figures 
clearly show that the people of Faribault county are wide awake in 
school affairs. 

THK FALL AND WINTER. 

The fall weather of this year was remarkably pleasant, and long 
continued, affording ample time for all fall work. 
But winter approaches 

'"Winds are swelling 
Round our dwelling. 
All day telling 
Us their woe. 
And at vesper 
Frosts grow crisper 
As they whisper 
Of the snow." 

The first snow fell about the twenty-third of November, but 
plowing was done as late at the sixth day of December, and navigation 
remained open on the Mississippi very late, a steamboat excursion 
coming off at St. Paul on the twenty seventh of December. 

FINIS. 

The following statement is clipped from a newspaper, and forms 
a neat conclusion to the history of this year: 

"Saturday, December 31st, 1870, was the lastday,otthelast week, of the last 
month, of the last year, of the last decade, ending with 1870. When will such 
a coincidence again occur?" 

" The winter winds are wearily sighing, 

Toll the church boll, sad and slow. 

And tread softly and speak low; 

For the old year lies — a dying."— Tennvson- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 315 



CHAPTER XVII. 

A. D. 1871. 

The morning of the first day of January, 1871, broke over this 
land, bright and still. Blue skies and a balmy atmosphere ushered 
in the new j'-ear — it was the Sabbath day. 

"Amidst the eartnioess of life, 
Vexation, vanity and strife; 
Sabbath! how sweet thy holy calm, 
Comes o'er the soul like healing balm." 

This year not only began, but ended on Sunday. In reference 
to the Sabbath, or Sunday, for whetlier properly, or improperly, 
both names are now generally given to the day linown as the Chris- 
tian Sunday and are so here used, there are several propositions 
. which may here be discussed. 

It is well known that the Jews and certain Christian denomina- 
tions, hold that Saturday, the seventh day of the week, is the true 
Sabbath day and the day which all people are, by the fourth com- 
mandment of the decalogue, required to keep as the Sabbath day. 
But, on the other hand, the great majority of Christian peoj)le keep 
Sunday, or the first day of the week, as the Sabbath day, and some 
legislative enactments, relating to the observance of Sunday, are 
to be found in the laws of most civilized nations. 

The propositions referred to above, are the following: 

Whether under the Christian dispensation, Sunday — the first 
day of the week — kept in commemoration of the Christ's resurrec- 
tion and the descent of the Holy Gliost, on the day of Pentacost, 
and kept by the apostles themselves and other followers of Christ, 
in the assembling themselves together and "the breaking of bread," 
preaching and the reading of the scriptures — a practice continued in 
the church in all ages, since their day, was, by competent authority, 
substituted lor the Jewish Sabbath, under the old dispensation, 
which, on the coming of the Christ, is said to have passed away. 
And here did the Christ, wlio declares that "He is Lord, also of the 
Sabbath," who in the three years of his ministry and, also, during 
the forty days between His resurrection and ascension, spake "of 
the things pertaining to the kingdom of God," instruct his apostles 
concerning the Sabbath, or Sunday. 



316 HISTORY OF 

Whether Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, who was a disciple of St. 
John, and was ordained by the Apostles then. living, spoke wisely 
and with authority, when he instructed some of his disciples, who 
wished to keep both Saturday and Sunday, that they should not 
keep the Sabbath of the Jews (the Saturday), but lead a life con- 
formable to the Lord's daj-. 

Wlielher the observance of one day in seven, as the Sabbath, be 
it the first or last day, or any other day of the week, is a compli- 
ance with the spirit of the law. 

Whether the sixth day — Sunday — before the Passover of the 
Jews (Saturday), was the day on which God rested from the work 
of Creation, and the original Sabbath, and whether, when the 
Israelites left Egypt, the day was put back one day to our Satur- 
day, and so remained for fifteen hundred years, until the Christ 
arose from the dead on Sunday the original seventh day of the 
week, and that Sunday and the original Sabbath are now the 
same day. 

Whether in the lapse of time, a discrepancy of one day has oc- 
curred, in consequence of which the present first day of the week — 
Sunday — is in fact the identical original seventh day of the week. 

Whether, from the time when the command was given to keep 
the Sabbath day holy, the weeks, day by day, have been exactly 
regular in their succession, and that counting, day by day, from the 
beginning, our present Saturday, or Sunday, or any other day of 
the week, will prove exactly correct in the order of time. And 
here, what effect on Sunday did the Act of the Parliament of Great 
Britian, in 1752, have, when it was enacted that the third day of the 
month of Sei)tember of that year should be called the (14th) four- 
teenth. 

Whether or not the Edict of the Emperor Constantine issued A. 
D. 321, commanding that all work should cease in the cities "on the 
venerable Sunday," was the first official recognition of Sunday. 
Sunday was, originally, and long before the Christian era, the old 
pagan Roman day of the Sun — a day in the pagan worship dedicated 
to the sun. 

Whether in this land, where "no religious test shall be required 
as a qualification to office," "where no law shall be made respecting 
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercises 
thereof," where all are guaranteed the liberty of "worshipping 
God according to the dictates of their own consciences." and where 
"no control of, or interference with the rights of conscience is per- 
mitted," any state, as such, has any constitutional, or other right 
to enact laws, pi'oviding for the observance of any day as the Sab- 
bath or as Sunday, and enforcing the same by penalties. Has a 
majority the right to determine this question? 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, BlINNESOTA. 317 

But may not the State, considering the value of the Sunday, in 
its secular aspects only, enforce by law, its observance as a day of 
rest from toil? 

The answers to these questions may be left to theologians, 
chronologists and statesmen. 

But there are a few plain, brief remarks regarding the observ - 
ance of the Sabbath day, which may not be inappropriate here. 

That this day should be observed by all, in a proper manner, is 
clearly declared in the fourth Commandment. None of the Com- 
mandments are more positive, more full or more in detail than this. 
By this command, we are in six days to labor and do all we have to 
do, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, to be kept holy. 
The seventh day — the Sabbath — is not ours, it is the Lord's. We 
have no right to pervert it, or use it for our ordinary purposes. We 
can only use it for purposes designated by Him to whom the day 
belongs. All this seems to admit of no argument. 

This day is evidently intended to be kept as a day of rest and luor- 
ship, in which all the ordinary labors of life are suspended, and works 
of charity and necessity, only, are permissable. The word "Sabbath," 
means rest. God rested on this day from the work of creation, and 
he commanded the day to be kept holy. It is not a day of frivolity, 
■ dissipation, or amusement, and it is certainly to be kept quietly, 
restfully and reverently, and as the Jews were commanded to have 
a holy convocation on the seventh day — the Sabbath, and Christ, as 
was his custom, went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and 
"stood up for to I'ead," and as the apostles and disciples assem- 
bled for public worship, subsequently on the Lord's day, as they 
did also on the seventh day, or Sabbath — the day is intended as a 
day of public assembling together for the worship of God. 

That the day should, in all things, be kept with the strictness 
of the ancient Jews, or the rigidity of our Puritan forefathers, would 
be unreasonable and certainly not the intention. The Christ said 
that "the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath," 
that is, it was made for man's benefit and, therefore, it is lawful to 
do good, as doing works of necessity, mercy, charity, piety, on that 
day. In the Church calendar, Sunday is a festival, not a fast. On 
the other hand, what is known as the Continental Sabbath, or Sun- 
day, that is, the Sunday as it is kept generally in Continental 
Europe — a day devoted to recreation, amusements, excursions, 
gaming, theatrical performances and general dissipation, is simply 
a perversion of the day. The public welfare and the cause of relig- 
ion would be much better promoted, even by the old puritanical Sab- 
bath, than by the Continental observance of the day. Sunday must 
not be secularized. 



318 UISOritY OF 

There are some things in the conditions of society, which mili- 
tate greatly against the proper observance of the Sabbath. Among 
these, there may be named tho fact that persons who labor hard in 
factories, workshops, mines and otherwise all tho work days of the 
week, and many hours of the day, which prevails much in Europe, 
and is coming to be the fact in this country, are almost compelled to 
ignore the Sabbath day. When Saturday night comes they are ex- 
hausted. The laborer has had no time during the week to attend to 
his private or personal business affairs, or for self-improvement, 
instruction, amusement or rest, or enjoyment of family life, and 
when Sunday dawns he feels that he must devote the day to some of 
these requirements. But suppose that even Sunday should be abol- 
ished, as has been proposed in certain localities, what would be the 
life of the daily toiler. Of all men, the workingman should be the 
friend of tho Sabbath day. An eight hour day for the laborer and 
a Saturday half holiday, will be among those improved conditions 
of labor which will some day be recognized everywhere. Human 
experience, in all ages, has taught much of the value of the proper 
observance of tho Sabbath. 

The keeping of one day in seven, as a day of rest from ordi- 
nary labors, is necessary to the well-being of man, and of all working 
animals. They can accomplish more labor and under better condi- 
tions, because of this rest. 

Its hygienic effects are greatly beneficial to man, mentally and- 
physically, not only because of the rest and recuperation but, also, 
because, according to the customs of all Christian lands, it is a day 
of personal cleaning up and change of raiment, and the mind is 
diverted from the ordinary tread mill round of mental and physical 
labors, to something new and different for the time being. In this 
age of nervous diseases, insanity and suicides, caused by over- work, 
hurry and worry, the Sunday rest is especially valuable. 

The famous Dr. Parre declared that the keeping of the Sun- 
day is necessary to the public health, and many other eminent phy- 
sicians indorse this testimony, and so do statisticians and sensible 
observers in general. 

It is morally and religiously beneficial, because the mind and 
attention are, or ought to be, called from sordid, temporal, worldly 
affairs to a higher plane, to instructions in religious duty and obli- 
gations, and to spiritual and eternal interests. Sunday is the great 
conservator of the morals and religion of the world. 

Blackstone, the great commentator on the laws of England, 
says that "'A corruption of morals usually follows a profanation 
of the Sabbath." Justice McLean, formerly of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, declared that "where there is no Christian 
Sabbath, there is no Christian morality." 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 319 

The proper keeping of the Sabbath is necessary to the well 
being of the State. Justice McLean, above-named, also said, that 
without the Christian morality which is conserved by the Christian 
Sabbath, "free institutions cannot long be sustained." Our Ameri- 
can liberties are largely connected with the weekly day of rest. 

Adam Smith, the eminent writer on political economy, declares 
that "The Sabbath, as a political institution, is of inestimable value, 
independently of its claim to divine authority." 

Macaulay, the English historian, writes that "If Sunday had 
not been observed as a day of rest, during the last three centuries, 
we should have been, at this moment, a poorer and less civilized 
people." 

But it is not only where the Christian religion prevails, that the 
value of keeping one day in seven, as a day of rest and worship, is 
recognized, but the Jewish and great pagan religions bear testi- 
mony to the same facts. 

Sunday, the first day of the week, is claimed as the proper day 
of rest by Christians, generally, Monday by the Greeks, Tuesday 
by the Persians, Wednesday by the Assyrians, Thursday by the 
Egyptians, Friday by the Mohammedan Turks, and Saturday, by 
the Jews and several Christian denominations. 

Finally, to sum up the subject, considering the authoritative 
command of the Great Greater, in regard to the observance of the 
Sabbath, its value to man's mental and physical well-being, its im- 
portance in the conservation of morality and religion, its value to 
the State and to the progress of civilization, the disregard and 
desecration of the Sabbath approaches very near the turpitude of 
a crime. And the writer regrets to record the fact that very 
generally, throughout the world, the profanation and desecration 
of the Sabbath is one of the evils of this age which seem to be 
rapidly increasing and over-shadowing the nations, our own among 
the number. But the writer adds here, with great pleasure, that 
locally (in Faribault county) the people generally, with a few ex- 
ceptions, have ever been a Sabbath observing, church going peoi^le. 
People who have the good of their race and nation at heart, can do 
no wisey act than to encourage, at all times, the proper observance 
of the Sabbath day. 

MORBUS SABBATICUS. 

A writer says, that morbus sabbaticus, or Sunday sickness, is a 
disease peculiar to church members. The attack comes on sud- 
denly every Sunday — it never occurs on any other day. No symp- 
toms are felt on Saturday night. The patient sleeps well, eats well, 
but just about church time, the attack comes on, and continues until 
services in the morning are over. Then the patient feels easy and 



320 niSTonv of 

eats a hearty dinner. In the afternoon the patient can take a walk, 
talk politics and read the Sunday paper. This sickness never inter- 
feres with the sleep, or appetite— it usually attacks only the head 
of the family, but no physician is ever called. Yet the disease is 
serious and becoming so prevalent, that it is sweeping thousands 
every year prematurely to the devil. 

JUDICIAL. 

The first January term of the district court in this county, com- 
menced its session Januai-y 3d. Hon. Franklin H. Waite, judge. 
There were eleven criminal and eighteen civil cases on the calendar. 
The term lasted six days, and much important business was trans- 
acted. 

The June term of this court commenced its session on the sixth, 
and at this term there were on the calendar nine criminal and 
thirty-one civil cases. The first trial yet had in this county for the 
awful crime of murder, occurred at this term of court — that of Nels 
Hast, a more full account of which is given elsewhere. This term, 
though a short one — lasting only four days — was for a number of 
reasons, one of the most interesting and important ever held in the 
county. Hast was convicted of murder in the second degree, and was 
sentenced to imprisonment for life, at hard labor, in the state prison. 

This was the first life sentence passed in this county, and of the 
four homicides which had occurred, this was the first instance in 
which the perpetrator was punished. 

THE COUNTY LEGISLATURE. 

A passing reference must now be made to the meeting of the 
"grave and reverend seniors," the county commissioners. They 
assembled on the third day of January; Arthur Bonwell was elected 
chairman for the year, after which the board proceeded to the 
transaction of its usual business. 

They met again on the fifteenth day of March, on the twenty- 
sixth day of June, and on the fifth day of September, but a careful 
inspection of the records of these several meetings, furnishes noth- 
ing of special note. Yet the business done at these several meet- 
ings, as always, was important, as being necessary to the well being 
of the county. 

The fact is that the great mass of the business, the real work 
of the world, public and private, of the town, county, state and 
nation, of all societies, corporations and individual pursuits, is of 
the ordinary routine character, having little of special interest, and 
nothing of the noise and glitter of what are called great actions.yet 
necessary, absolutely necessary, to the very existence, the stability, 
success and progress of all our institutions, political, religious, 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 321 

social, financial and educational, and, therefore, of the gravest im- 
portance. The world's real work, intellectual, moral and physical, 
is done by its quiet, busy, daily toilers, and is of incalculably more 
importance to the well-being of society, than all those brilliant 
actions, so called great deeds and noisy demonstrations of which 
alone the world seems to take any account. 

THE farmers' society. 

At the winter meeting of the Agricultural Society, held in the 
early part of January, S. Pfeffer, of Blue Earth City, was elected 
president; A. D. Hall, of Wells, secretary, and L. W. Brown, of 
Prescott, treasurer. A meeting of the society was held at Blue 
Earth City, July 14th, which adjourned to meet at Wells on the 
twenty-sixth day of August. The object of this meeting was the 
revision of the constitution and by-laws, the preparation of premium 
lists and to determine the place of holding the next fair. 

The fair was held at Wells on the 4tli, 5th and 6th days of Octo- 
ber. The exhibition was not great, but the attendance was good, 
and financially the fair was a success to the society. 

THE WEATHER. 

The first snow storm of the winter commenced on the eleventh 
day of January, and continued two days. With this exception the 
winter was a very mild one. No great depth of snow fell, and we 
were not visited by any of those terrific "north westers," known by 
the euphoneous name of "blizzard," that occasionally give us some 
idea of the intense cold, and furious storms of the polar regions. 

The old weather saw, 

"As the days begin to lengthen 
The cold begins to strengthen." 

did not hold very good this winter. 

In January, of this year, there was considerable rejoicing through- 
out the country, in consequence of the fact that all the southern 
States were represented in con gress for the first time since Decem- 
ber, 1860. "Reconstruction" was completed. 

THE STATE LEGISLATURE. 

We now invite our readers to the halls of legislation at the 
State capital, to see what w as there done of interest to the people of 
this county. 

The thirteenth State Legislature assembled January 8th and 
adjourned March 3d. 

It will be recollected that in December, of the preceding year, 

notices were served upon G. W. Whallon, senator elect of this (the 

£Oth) district, and upon Geo. C. Chamberlin, representative elect. 



322 HISTORY OF 

that their election wduld be contested, and that testimony was taken 
in reference to the matter. On the assembling of the legislature, 
both Messrs. Whallon and Chamberlin took their seats in their re- 
spective houses. 

Without going into all the details incident to these contests in 
the legislature, it will sufiice to say that on the twenty-fifth day of 
January the contested election case of Whallon and Thompson came 
up for final action in the Senate on the following resolution: 

"Rcaolvcd, That in the contested case of Thompson against Whallon, now 
pending— 

1st. Clark \V. Thompson received a majority of the legal votes for senator 
in the Twentieth Senatorial District, and that, therefore, George W. Whallon is 
not entitled to a seat in this Senate. 

2d. That Clark W. Thompson be admitted to his seat as senator from the 
Twentieth Senatorial District." 

On motion Senators Farmer (absent) and Whallon (interested), 
were excused. 

The question being upon the above resolution, a division of the 
question was called for, and upon the first clause of the resolution, 
the roll being called, there were thirteen yeas and seven nays. So 
that clause of the resolution was adopted. 

The question being now upon the second proposition, the roll 
being called, there were ten yeas, and ten nays. So the second 
clause of the resolution was lost. On a motion to reconsider the 
vote last taken, there were ten yeas, and ten nays. So the motion to 
reconsider was lost. 

As the matter stands thus far. Mr. Whallon is out of his seat and 
the seat is vacant. But on the thirty- first day of January, Mr. Far- 
mer, who had been absent on the former vote, appeared in his place 
in the Senate, and requested permission to record his vote upon the 
motion to reconsider the vote upon the second proposition. He was 
allowed so to do, and cast his vote in the affirmative. The proposi- 
tion to admit Mr. Thompson being then before the senate, the yeas 
and nays being ordered, there were fourteen yeas, and five nays, 
when Mr. Thompson came forward and was sworn in. On Tuesday, 
February 7th, the matter of the contested seat of Geo. C. Chamber- 
lin coming up in the House for final action, and the question being 
on the resolution to oust Mr. Chamberlin and give the seat to Mr. 
Patchin. the vote stood yeas, twenty-eight, nays, twelve. So Mr. 
Chamberlin was ousted, and Mr. Patchin admitted to the seat as 
representative of this district. 

On the twenty first day of February "A bill for an act to remove 
the county seat of Faribault county from Blue Earth City to Wells," 
previously introduced by Mr. Thompson, was passed in the senate 
by a vote of thirteen yeas to four nays. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 323 

The passage of this act naturally created great excitement in 
Blue Earth City and vicinity, and it was determined by the residents 
of that village to defeat the passage of the bill in the House if possi- 
ble. It was reported that the people of Wells had previously secured 
the names of five hundred and ten inhabitants of the county, to a 
petition to the legislature favoring the removal of the county seat. 
The people of Blue Earth City then proceeded to canvass the county 
with remonstrances against the removal and the passage of the act 
pending, and secured the names of fifteen hundred and forty legal 
voters, the lists being all sworn to by the persons who procured the 
singers. These remonstrances, in the aggregate, contained the names 
of over two-thirds of the legal voters of the county. They were for- 
warded to St. Paul and laid before the House. The result was that 
on Monday, February 27th, the House committee on towns and coun- 
ties, reported adversely on the bill for the removal of the county 
seat from Blue Earth City to Wells. The report of the committee 
was adopted by the House, by a considerble majority, and a motion to 
reconsider, under a suspension of the rules, was lost by a vote of 
twenty-five to fifteen, and the fate of the bill was sealed. And now, 
as was very natural, there was great rejoicing at Blue Earth City, and 
a corresponding depression of spirits at Wells. 

The further action of the legislature of this year, of special re- 
lation to this county, was the passage of an act apportioning the 
State into legislative districts, in which it is enacted that "the sixth 
district shall be composed of the county of Faribault, and shall be 
entitled to elect one senator and two representatives." 

Also "An act to incorporate the village of Wells." Also "An 
act to authorize the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota, Rail- 
way Company to extend their line of railroad into Minnesota, and 
which provided that said railway shall cross the State line dividing 
Iowa from Minnesota in Faribault county. 

Wm. Wiadom, of Winona, was elected United States Senator, 
for six years, and 0. P. Stearns to fill out the term of Mr. Norton, 
deceased. 

From what has been stated above, it will be observed that this 
county was represented in the legislature of 1871, by G. W. Whal- 
lon, and C. W. Thompson, in the senate, and G. C. Chamberlin and 
A. L. Patchin, in the House, being a little more representation than 
this county ever had before, or since that memorable session. 

As a passing remark, it may be stated that but little, if any- 
thing of value, was gained by either party to the great contest of 
1870-71. The bill for the removal of the county seat did not become 
a law, and the internal improvement lands were not divided, as the 
bill was vetoed, nor was any other act passed of any special advan- 
tage to either party. 



324 HISTORY OF 

ITEMS. 
(From the Pott.) 

—March.— A Missouri paper olTers this for the requiem of a departed con- 
temporary. It lias had many local illustrations. 
"Leaf by leaf the roses fall; 
Dime by dime the purse runs dry, 
One by one beyond recall 
Mushroom papers droop and die." 

— Advices from Paris give details of the inauguration of another revolu- 
tion. A mob has seized the city, three prominent generals have been shot, the 
streets barricaded, and the government and the American diplomatic corps have 
left the city. 

— The tide of imiuigration to Minnesota has already set in and "prairie 
schooners'' are already to Ije seen. It is the opinion of well informed persons, 
that immigration to Minnesota will be very heavy this year. 

—St. Patrick's day was pretty generally observed throughout the State. 
— A conductor on the S. M. Railroad says that as he was collecting tickets 
the other day, he came to a very tall, pleasant looking gentleman, who seemed 
very anxious to reach his journey's end— when the conductor reached for his 
ticket, the tall gentleman took him by the hand, felt his pulse and asked 
to see his tongue. That doctor does not live far from here. 

—April 1st — The beautiful spring weather of the past week, has induced 
farmers to commence sowing grain. 

— May 20th — We claim to beat the State on corn, having a patch of sweet 
corn which is ten inches high at this date. 

— There are several different kinds of shirks— the religious shirk, the political 
shirk, the physical shirk; Init of all shirks, the meanest, the most contemptible 
is the public shirk. By the public shirk we mean the man of property who is 
beneOted by the pushing of every public enterprise, and yet who persistently 
refuses to put his shoulder to the wheel to assist. 

— It may be said with truthfulness that the salvation of this State depends 
upon the coming harvest. Never at any previous time, since the State was 
settled, have the people been so generally deep in debt. They owe the merchant, 
the machine man and the liaiiks. The amount of money loaned on mortgages 
is enormous. This money is loaned at a high rate of interest, ranging from two 
to three per cent a month. * * » 

—The duty of the hour is to economize, economize, ECONOMIZE. 
— June 10th — Strawberries in market. 

— The Delevan and Blue Earth City stage line is doing a good business 
these days. 

— Pieplant will soon disappear from the market. 

—We have been informed that the crops never looked better than they 
now do. 

— Jug butter can be bought in its utmost perfection at reduced prices. 
Some of these items are a little curious, but they represent some 
of the events and conditions of the times. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 325 

THE SONG OF THE SEEDER. 

Seeding commenced the latter part of March, and was mainly 
completed early in April. Corn- planting commenced about the 
tenth day of May, and a much greater breadth of land was cultivated 
to corn this year than was usual. 

ST. PATRICK'S DAY. 

The numerous notices in the newspapers of the current year, of 
the very general observance of St. Patrick's Day by a large class of 
out citizens, suggest the propriety of a few words on the subject here. 

"How beauteous are the feet of those who bear 
Mercy to man, glad tidiags to despair."— C H. Johnson. 

St. Patrick — a bishop— was the grea tmissionary and apostle of 
Christianity to the Irish people, and is revered as the Patron 
Saint of old Ireland. He was born A. D. 372 or 873, and died March 
17th, A. D. 493 or 495. There appears, however, to be some doubt 
as to the accuracy of these dates. He began his labors as mission- 
ary to Ireland, about A D. 432. He was an apostle of great zeal 
and ability, of high character, fearless and of untiring energy, and 
has the credit of having converted almost the whole of Ireland to 
Christianity. It appears that he worthily bore the commission of 
the Great Master, recorded in the Scriptures. 

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, (the Disciples) saying, All power is 
given unto me in heaven and in earth." 

"Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 

"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: 
and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." 

—3Mhew II, S: 18-19-20. 
And this is the highest, the holiest commission ever issued to 
man. And the grandest men of all the ages are these brave, self- 
sacrificing and devoted missionaries who bear this Gospel of Jesus 
Christ to the heathen, raising up the idol-worshipper from his dark- 
ness and degradation into the blessed light of the Son of Righteous- 
ness, placing his feet in the path of civilization and progress, and 
pointing out to him the way to eternal salvation. 

The Roman Catholic Church keeps St. Patrick's festival on 
March 17th, the day of his death. 

The day is usually commemorated by religious services in the 
Roman Catholic churches, and by processions through some of the 
principal streets of the cities, and by other appropriate demonstra- 
tions. The day has generally been observed in this county in some 
manner, usually simply by religious services. St. Patrick's Day is 
not, however, a legal holiday in this State, and it seems to be com • 
memorated only by the Roman Catholics, yet it might very appro- 
priately be observed by all Christian people, and especially is it 



326 HISTOIiY OF 

fitting that Irishmen, throughout the world, should revere and pay 
honor to this great man's memory. 

The proper color of decoration on this day, is green, and the 
prevailing custom is to display upon the person a small badge, 
representing the leaves of the shamrock, as a recognition of the day. 

"Oh the Shamrock, the ^;reon immortal Shamrock 1 
Chosen leaf, 
Of hard and chief, 
Old Erin's native Shamrock '."—Moore. 

TEACHERS' INSTITUTE. 

April was signalized this year by the fact that the State Teach- 
ers' In.stitute was held at Blue Earth City, commencing April 17th. 
Some eighty (80) teachers were present and were much interested, 
as well as much benefited by the meeting. The institute was under 
the direction of and conducted by Prof. Wilson, State Superintend- 
ent, Supt. Niles and Dr. Aiken, all noted educators. A number of 
very instructive lectures were delivered by these gentlemen on 
educational subjects. 

THE FOURTH OF JULY. 

The Fourth of July was celebrated at Winnebago City and 
Delavan this year, but not at Blue Earth City. The celebration at 
Winnebago City was a great success. It was estimated that over 
two thousand people were present. 

We present the following account of the celebration taken from 
the local newspaper, and also a number of extracts from the address 
of Hon. G. K. Cleveland, because of the references contained 
therein to many matters of interest in the earlier days of the county, 
and also as a tribute to the memory of one nowdeceased, who was 
once a citizen of the county, and was honored with some of its most 
important offices. 

"After passing through the principal streets the procession halted at the 
bower.when the exercises were opened by music by the band; this was followed by 
prayer by Rev. J. D. Todd, and singing by the Glee Club. Dr. D. Noteman then 
read the Declaration of Independence in an impressive manner, and was lustily 
cheered at the close of the same. The au'lience was then treated to music by 
both tlie brass band and Glee Club. After which Hon. J. A. Latimer, president 
of the day, introduced Major G. K. Cleveland, of Mankato, who delivered an 
oration of which we can only give an imperfect idea by the following extracts. 
We regret that our space forbids giving Major Cleveland's address in full, but 
as we cannot, we select those portions having a local application, judging that 
these will be of most interest to our readers— at least those who are considered 
'old settlers.' The address was as follows: 

Mr. President, Ooddess of Liberty, and M(tid.s of Honor: 

Fellow Citizens: Friends of to-day, and friends of other days! Judging 
from what I see before me and around me, this is 'July,' and 'Thompson has 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 327 

got home.' I read in youf paper that lively times were anticipated in some 
young city of your county 'when Thompson came home in July.' 

My friends, of Winnebago City, of Blue Earth City, of Fairmont, of Shelby, 
of Sterling, of Mapleton, Wells, and all of Faribault county. This opportunity 
of celebrating with you the glorious Fourth, is to me an occasion of unalloyed 
pleasure. This spot was my home from 1857 to 1862. I shall never forget, and 
will you, who took part in celebrating the Fourth of July. 1858, ever forget 
the joy and rejoicing of that day. Yonder, on the site of the old school-house, 
stood the green booth. Beneath it groaned the loaded tables which the Win- 
nebago ladies of that day had spread with royal, no, with Republican bounty. 
1 use the word in a national, not a partisan sense. The ladies in question were 
famous for an intimateacquaintance with the mysteries of both substantial and 
pastry cooking. I venture they have not lost their skill. That was the first 
celebration of the Fourth in this city. The Fourth of July is like quails and 
prairie chickens— a bud of civilization. It follows the settlements. The 
Declaration of Independence was read; patriotic songs were sung; the day, the 
President, the old flag, the ladies present, and the girls we had left behind 
us, all were toasted. That was a memorable celebration. We who met there 
thus, for the first time, claimed half the State of the Union for birthplace and 
homes. 

We came from the Maine woods; from the shadow of Plymouth Rock; from 
the hills and valleys of the Empire State; from wood-crowned Pennsylvania; 
from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa. Yankees, Knickerbockers, 
Leatherheads, Buckeyes, Wolverines. Hawkeyes, Hoosiers, and Suckers— a 
hodge-podge, a hasty pudding, to be soon simmered-down into Gophers. This 
is no inglorious ending. Gophers are the real ancient mound-builders of the 
Mississippi Valley, and by a happy transmigration of souls, have returned to 
their ancient seats, to found a race more mighty and enduring than the first. 
We came with the same patriotic associations, the same revolutionary reading, 
the same manly pride in American greatness, the same mother love for the old 
flag, the same rock-bottomed confidence in American destiny, the same amaz- 
ing faith in the scream of the national eagle to scare the world. Hither we came 
seeking homes, happiness, fortune. We found here a virgin soil— a flowery 
wilderness— a spot of uninhabited earth fresh from the hand of God. Its soil 
of marvelous fertility had never been cursed by wheel of bloody conqueror, by 
foot of cruel oppressor, or sweat of slave. You received it unstained from the 
hands of the Almighty world-builder, overlaid with the cream of a thousand 
centuries, and consecrated on that Independence Day to order, liberty, and law; 
to the equal rights of all men, of all climes, who should here set foot; to ad- 
vancement, education, and to that religion whose corner-stone is the Father- 
hood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. 

But are they all here who took part in that celebration? Let them an- 
swer to roll-call: Ladd, Welch, Jenn^ss, Goodnow, Moulton, Foley, Towndrow, 
Wheeler, Tommy George, Dunham, Spickerman, Seely, Dunn, Sherlock, Kim- 
ball, Humes, Grove Burt, Capt. Bigelow, Madison— where are you. all— and a 
hundred others, Hi. Young included? More than half are gone — scattered by the 
toss and whirl of time. Enough remain to enjoy with me a moment's retros- 
pect. The first social party I attended in this State was in Burnett's log hotel 
over there— do you recollect it?— in the winter of "ST-'S, when a solitary fiddle 
discoursed ravishing music, while the feet of forty dancers tore their soles on 
rough spots where the landlord's adze had smoothed down — or, rather, in a 
well-m(!ant effort, had roughed up— the warped edges of the floor-boards. 
Young ladies, like quails and prairie chickens, follow the settlement— in time. 
At that time there were no young ladies in these youthful "diggins." Butyoung 



828 HISTORY OF 

luarricd ladies were numerous. These came from over the river, from Verona, 
from Bass Lake, from Shelby. They hroiight their tiahies— and a little pantry 
made clean for a clothes-room, was piled from bottom to top shelf with sleeping 
babies, from three weeks old and upward. It was a sight to behold. It always 
did seem to me that the soil and climate of the upper Blue Earth valley was 
remarkably congenial to the growth of babies— God hless their pug noses! The 
supper that night was sumptuous, and the social, innocent pleasure, temper- 
ately and most heartily enjoyed. The first sermon I ever heard in Minnesota 
was at tlie hospitable home of Capt. Bigelow and his most amiable and estim- 
able lady, when Elder Jacob Conrad preached. I pronounce his name with 
pleasure, and am proud to be numbered among his friends. Noble, faithful, 
cheerful of spirit, he lived among the sometime rough and wayward settlers of 
the frontier the religion he commended to others. He planted the Banner of 
the Cross where too many only thought of planting potatoes and corn. His 
illustrations of truth and duty often had the spice of an odd and humorous 
originality whi'jh often provoked a smile, but which did not fail of their mark. 
Noble, Christian man! Long may he live to enjoy life and do good . The first 
grave I ever stood above in Minnesota, was yonder in the woodland— the un- 
timely grave of murdered Fisher. I do not recall a single natural death during 
the first three years of my residence here, so gracious and so healthful was the 
time. By your favor I was first honored with an office— that of Probate Judge. 
In the political contests of those early days local 'honors" were 'easy'— for 
Republicans— they were overwhelmingly in the majority. Twice was I honored 
by your suffrages with a seat in the Legislature. But it was not votes alone 
that elected me. [Here the speaker paid a tribute to the memory of the 'stiff- 
necked, crop-eared Indian pony' which had carried him through his electioneer- 
ing expeditions. He then referred to the late civil war, paying a glowing tri- 
bute to those brave men who left the comforts of home to assist their country 
In her great peril; painted in vivid colors the fearful scenes of carnage in the 
field, and the broken-hearted wives and mothers left at home; referred to the 
present disseniiions in the South, and considered the rule of unprincipled rene- 
gades from the North to be one of the prime causes then-of; spoke of the 'new 
departure' doctrine inaugurated by Vallandigham, and favored the throwing 
aside of old issues by both political parties, and on nuestions of national im- 
portance all work together His closing remarks were eloquent, patriotic, and 
highly entertaining to the vast audience in attendance]. 

Mr. Cleveland was loudly cheered on taking his seat. The brass band and 
glee club then favored the audience with some charming music, which was 
followed by the benediction, delivered liy Rev. Mr. Ross." 

OUR RURAL SUMMERS. 

Again, as in every year, the glorious summer is with us. 

How beautiful are the azure skies and the golden sun, which 
rises early and looks for many hours, and until late in the evening, 
upon the daily scenes, as if loth to be absent long, and leaving, long 
after he lias gone down, the summer twilight; and who ha.s not 
listened with pleasure to the late summer evening concert of the 
cicada and other musical insects, when all other sounds are hushed? 
And now the trees, the groves and the great forests are clothed in 
their fullest foliage of dark green, and how numerously they are 
occupied by the birds, of every variety of plumage, which here make 
their homes, and charm the world with their music. How pleasant 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA- 329 

is the cool shade, under the great leafy branches of the mighty oaks 
and maples and elms and other forest trees. 

"All who love the haunts of nature, 
Love the sunshine of the meadow; 
Love the shadow of the forest; 
Love the wind among the branches." 

The fruit trees bear on every bough a burden of growing fruit, 
which gives the assurance of the coming rich reward, for all the 
labor expended in their care. And in this favored season, the earth 
is carpeted with rich grasses and blooming flowers, and we see on 
every hand, wide and cultivated fields, bearing their wealth of grow- 
ing crops, — the rustling corn, the green, waving seas of other grains, 
or which are, perhaps, already growing golden, and ready for the 
abundant harvest. Nor can we overlook the grazing herds of cattle, 
the flocks of sheep and droves of horses, all well-fed and contented 
in the green pastures, for from these grain fields and droves and 
flocks and herds, come our living, and the wealth of the world. 
And to-day every breeze bears to us the fragrant odors of the wide 
spreading landscape. The softly falling dews of the night and the 
refreshing showers of this season, are full of blessings for man. 

This, too, is the season of the school and college commencement 
. exercises and long school vacation, the "outing" time of the city 
business man, the season of pic-nics and outdoor festivals, of cele- 
brations and the assembling of great literary and benevolent asso- 
ciations. And now is out- door life in the country full of useful 
labor, and all kinds of business activity. Now, too, the pleasure 
seekers are in the field and forest, on the land and on the waters, in 
quest of rest and recuperation. 

Yes, the summer is life in its perfection, for every living thing. 

"Then comes Thy glory in the summer months, 
With light and heat refulgent. Then Thy sun 
Shoots full perfection through the swelling year." 

Heaven itself is but an eternal summer. It is the summer that 
gives us the goodly fruits of the earth, without which, all things 
having life would perish. But the promise made in the world's 
morning is, that "while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, 
and cold and heat and summer and winter, and day and night, shall 
notcease." 

THE HUM OF THE HARVESTERS. 

Harvest commenced about the twenty-fourth of July. Hands 
were plenty at two dollars per day, and the weather was good. 

Crops of all kinds were good this year, except wheat, which was 
generally light, many pieces not producing more than from five to 
eight bushels per acre. The average yield over the county did not. 



330 HISTORY OF 

probably, exceed tea bushels per aero. The corn crop was the larg- 
est ever yet raised in the county. This was Minnesota's great corn 
year. If an Illinois farmer had been visiting this county, during 
the summer and fall of this year and had seen the tall thrifty stalks, 
the large and perfectly rippened oars, he might well inquire why this 
county was not adapted to raising "Cawn." He would not only have 
seen corn, but might have truthfully said with the poet 

"On cither hand 
The jellow pumpkins Ho, 
Sprinkled about the over-burdened land, 
Suggestive of delicious pie. 
Whose charms, a home-bred, hungry soul. 
Cannot withstand." 

THE SOUTH WEST AND THE MAIL. 

On the second day of September the last number of the South 
West appeared. The editor, in his good bye. after stating that he 
had sold out. says: "We shall now have an opportunity of a 'play 
spell' that is not in the least disagreeable to contemplate, after 
having conducted a newspaper for twenty-seven years." 

On the sixteenth day of September the Blue Earth City Mail ap- 
peared at Blue Earth City, published by M. H. Stevens, formerly 
of the Post. It was a large, eight column weekly, "neatly printed 
and ably edited," as the usual phrase goes. Mr. Stevens had bought 
out the South West, referred to above. 

THE CONTEST FOR THE OFFICES. 

With the incoming of September, another exciting political con- 
test commenced. 

It will be remembered that by the new apportionment hereto- 
fore mentioned, that this county now constituted one senatorial and 
representative district, being entitled to one senator and two repre- 
sentatives in the State legislature. 

This being the year of the gubernatorial election, the candidates 
of the loading parties were Hon. Horace Austin, republican, and Hon. 
Winthi'op Young, democrat. 

The democi'acy held a County Convention at Blue Earth City 
on the ninth day of September, and made the following nominations: 
For Senator — Geo. B. Kingsley. 
For Representatives — John McNeil, C. G. Slagle. 
For Treasurer — Geo. Barnes. 
For County Attorney — Richard Field. 
For Sheriff— A. B. Davis. 
For Judge of Probate — A. Hanson. 
For Coroner — J. M. Drake. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 331 

On the fifteenth day of September, the republicans met in 
county convention, at Blue Earth City. 

The following nominations were made: 

For Treasurer — R. B. Johnson. 

For Sheriff— J. E. Wheeler. 

For County Attorney — J. H. Sprout. 

For Coroner — A. J. Rose. 

For Judge of Probate — J. A. Keister. 

An attempt was made to nominate a candidate for senator, G. 
W. Whallon and B. H. Hutchins being before the convention. 

A great deal of "noise and confusion" now prevailed in the con- 
vention, and in the hurry and excitement the vote was declared a 
tie, whereupon a motion was made and put and was supposed to 
have been carried to adjourn, without nominating senator and repre- 
sentatives, and the convention broke up in a general jumble. It 
was, however, claimed by Mr. Whallon and his friends, that the 
name of one delegate friendly to him had not been called, nor his 
vote counted, which if it had been done, would have given him one 
majority, and of course the nomination. 

The result, however, was that it was generally considered that 
no nominations had been made by the convention for legislative 
offices, and the field was open to all. 

A great deal of figuring, intriguing, "log-rolling" and combina- 
tions began at once among the local politicians — a great running 
hither and thither, a consultation of factions and individuals and 
interests. Dissatisfaction was expressed with the nominations of 
both parties, and as a result, about the close of September, certain 
independent candidates for legislative honors were announced. E. 
H. Hutchins and Geo. W. Whallon were announced as candidates for 
the senate. S. P. Child, Andrew Hanson, Henry M. Huntington 
and C. A. Lounsberry as candidates for I'epresentatives. 

A "People's Mass Convention" was called to meet at Wisner's 
Grove on the tenth day of October, for the purpose of making nom- 
inations. This convention, as announced, was not to be a party aifair — 
it was not to be controlled in any way by politicians — they were to be 
cast aside together with all kinds of "rings" and "cliques," and 
honest men were to be nominated. 

It was alleged that some of the candidates already nominated 
by one party or the other, and several of the independents wanted 
the indorsement of this convention. Others again, who had noth- 
ing to make or lose, were glad to see a "rumpus." The convention 
met on the day appointed. It was not largely attended, considering 
the efforts to get up an excitement. 

The convention nominated J. A. Latimer, for senator; J. C. 
Woodruff and C. A. Lounsberry for representatives, Nathaniel 



332 HISTOIiY OF 

McColley for treasurer, Richard Field for county attorney, J. E. 
Wheeler for sheriff, J. M. Drake for coroner and W. J. Robinson for 
probate judge. 

Of these nominees, we may remark, that soon after the conven- 
tion, Messrs. Latimer and Woodruff withdrew, Mr. McColley de- 
clined the nomination, and Mr. Robinson did not accept nor run as a 
candidate, and all the others were defeated, as appears by the oflScial 
returns. 

The canvass was a very spirited one, and although there were no 
public meetings and speeches, every elector in the county was well 
informed of the claims of the several candidates. The contest was 
mainly on persons and localities, politics being greatly ignored. 
The principal contest was for the offices of senator, representatives 
and sheriff. The candidates for the senate made prodigious efforts 
and left nothing undone, while a number of the candidates for repre- 
sentatives pursued the business of electioneering, from the rising 
of the sun, each morning, to the going down thereof, and extended 
over considerably into the sombre shades of night. But all such 
contests must end at last and some result be obtained. 

The election was held on the seventh day of November, and the 
close and bitter contest resulted as follows: 

Austin 1,565 Slaple 263 

Young 428 Johnson 1,625 

Whallon 669 Barnes 354 

Hutchins 689 Wheeler 939 

Kingsley 613 Davis 1,035 

Child 967 Sprout 1,278 

Huntington 754 Field 715 

Loiinsberry 726 Kicster 1,580 

McNeil 589 Hanson 612 

Hanson 324 

For county commissioners the following named gentlemen were 
elected: Henry Sellen, in District No. 2; W. W. Potter, in District 
No. 4, and David Catlin, in District No. 5. 

It may be said of this election, that all the candidates for sen- 
ator and I'epresentatives were more or less dissappointed at the re- 
sult — some in being beaten, others in being elected, some in the 
majorities being either so large, or so small, and the result of no 
election ever held in this county produced such incense grief and 
indignation in the hearts of some of the defeated, as this, yet the 
election was fairly held, the canvass honorably conducted in the 
main, and no frauds were ever alleged. 

Defeat is among those unpleasant things in politics, as to which 
every candidate for office must take his chances. And the defeated 
cannot always see why they failed. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 333 

"How many men have died believing 
The world was blind to their achieving, 
And has ungratefully ignored 
The gods designed to be adored! 
Who has not heard the woeful wail 
Of unappreciated whale, 
Who thinks, if chance had let him blow, 
The world would not ignore him so."— Holley. 

PICK UPS. 

On the third day of June a heavy hail storm passed over a por- 
tion of the county, doing much damage. 

The first heavy frost of the season occurred on the night of tlie 
nineteenth day of September. This item may not be of much inter- 
est to some people, yet there are those who are much benefitted in 
linowing just such unpretentious facts, and especially in knowing, 
for instance, when the first frosts have occurred during a number of 
years. It is from the knowledge of such apparently unimportant 
events that the work of farmers, in all countries, is much regulated. 

The weather, during the spring and summer of this year, was 
generally pleasant. There were but few storms, and not much rain. 
The year was one of those known as a dry year, and was dry 
especially in the fall. Winter set in early in November, quite cold, 
and continued so right along, the twenty -ninth of November being 
the coldest day of the winter. On that day the murcury run down 
to 31° below zero. 

THE YEAR OF FIRE. 

This year will ever be prominent in the annals of time as the 
year of fire. The fire fiend went forth in his robes of flame, on the 
wings of the winds, and great cities, thriving villages and vast 
districts of country were laid in ashes. 

On the 9th and 10th days of October the great city of Chicago 
was mainly burned up. Many lives were lost. Two hundred mil- 
lions of dollars worth of property was destroyed. Ninety eight 
thousand people were rendered homeless and pennyless. The in- 
surance losses paid amounted to?18,000,000, but hundreds of insur- 
ance companies, many of them among the strongest in the world, 
were made bankrupt. It was the most extensive, destructive and 
appalling fire known to history, the burning of Rome, in the reign 
of the monster, Nero, not excepted. 

"Blackened and bleeding, panting, prone 
On the charred fragments of her shattered throne. 
Lies she who stood, but yesterday, alone." 

—Bret Harte. 

Soon afterwards a large part of Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, 
and a part of Michigan, were burned over, destroying many villages, 
vast forests of timber, and other property, and throughout the 
whole country fires were more numerous and destructive than usual. 



334 HISrOHY OF 

ALEXIS. 

And now we may close the record of this year by the statement 
that, in November, the Grand Duke Alexis, of Russia, arrived in 
America, and travelled through the country for several months, at- 
tracting considerable of the public attention. And here is a peg on 
which some pertinent remarks may be hung. While it is evidently 
proper that the representatives of foreign governments, the kings, 
the scions of royalty and others of the aristocracy of monarchial 
nations, should be received and treated, on visiting our shores, with 
proper respect, attention and hospitality, it is well to be careful not 
to stultify our republicanism and self-respect and sink our dignity 
into obsequiousness and flunkyism. The prying curiosity, the fawn- 
ing and toadyism which characterized the conduct of many of our 
citizens, e.specially those known as "society'" people among the up- 
per tendom of our cities, on the visit of this young man, noted for 
nothing he ever did. or thought, or said, was disgusting to all think- 
ing people, and must have surprised the Russian himself. Such 
sycophancy is not only inconsistent with self-respect, but also with 
our character as Americans, and with the spirit of American institu- 
tions. We pride ourselves as a nation, on our free government. We 
acknowledge no nobility but that of personal worth. A man is no 
better for his ancestors, or his relatives, even if they were, or are, 
kings, unless they were noble, because of their intelligence and vir- 
itues, and he is like them, and he is none the worse if they were igno- 
ble, unless he shares their unworthiness. 

They from abroad or at home, who are entitled to our homage and 
to special public honors are the Lafayettes and Kossuths, men who 
have said something, done something, represented something in the 
world's progress in civil and religious liberty — or men who ai-e the 
great leaders in science, literature, invention, the kings of thought, 
the reformers, the educators, the men who represent the brain and 
the work and the industries of the world. Such are the men who are 
entitled to our highest regard and attention, and to whom we can 
afford to doff our hats. 

Here is a little story with much in it: Maria Antoinette, Queen 
of France, wishing to send to Washington a royal gift, as a token of 
her appreciation of his great merits, consulted Lafayette as to the 
form of presentation. She recited the formularies of adulatory terms 
usual in addressing kings and other monarchs. Lafayette mildly 
objected to the employment of such terms, as unsuitable in this case, 
saying "They, Madame, were only kings, Washington is the great 
leader of a free nation." Let Americans ever maintain their self- 
respect as American citizens and the rcpresentatves of American 
ideas, even in the presence of the proudest monarch on earth. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 335 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

A. D.1872. 

THE COUNTY CONTROLLERS. 

The first notable event of the year was the meeting of the board 
of county commissioners, on the second day of January. A. R. 
More, Sr., of Pilot Grove, was elected chairman for the year. The 
further action of the board at this meeting, of historical interest, is 
recorded elsewhere. The board met again on the eighteenth of 
March, and, among other business, considered a project in relation 
to the erection, at an early day, of a county building for a court 
room and county offices, and on the twenty-eighth of the same 
month, they again met for the purpose of examining jDlans and spec- 
ifications for such building. Finally, at a meeting held on the 
twenty-fifth day of June, they determined to erect a county building, 
to cost about 14,000, provided that Blue Earth City township should 
contribute about S2,300 to the enterprise. The township subse- 
quently accepted the proposition. The beautiful grounds— the court 
house square — on which the county buildings are erected, were re- 
served for the purpose by the original town-site proprietors of Blue 
Earth City, and were donated to the county, free of any charge. 

THE FARMERS' SOCIETY. 

On the third day of January, the agricultural society held 
its annual meeting, at which, Sabastian Pfeffer, of Blue Earth City, 
was chosen president, C. S. Dunbar, of Foster, treasurer, and R. W. 
Richards, of Blue Earth City, secretary. At this time the society 
was again somewhat agitated about securing a permanent location 
and grounds, but there were some difficulties in the way of deciding 
the question, as each of the villages, in the county, desired to secure 
it, and the members of the society being scattered all over the 
county, were much divided in their views. 

The secretary was authorized to get two hundred copies of the 
constitution and by-laws printed, for the use of the society, and pro- 
cure suitable books for the several officers, and also to transcribe all 
the records of the society into a proper record book. 

On the twentieth of April a meeting was held at Blue Earth 
City for the purpose of considering the question of the permanent 
location of the society, and the procuring of grounds. At this meet- 



886 HISTORY OF 

ing a committee of six was appointed to receive propositions. Blue 
Earth City, Winnebago City and Wells were the competitors. 

Another meeting was held, at Blue Earth City, June 2Gth, when 
the proposition of that village to locate the society and fair grounds 
permanently at that place, in consideration of the gift, to the society, 
of twenty-five acres of land, near the village, for grounds, was ac- 
cepted. But the matter was not yet fully and permanently settled, 
owing to various causes, not necessary to mention here. 

THE DAY OF .lUDGMENT. 

At the January term of the district court for this year, but little 
business of importance was transacted, there being no cases attract- 
ing public attention. There were thirty-nine civil and but two crim- 
inal cases on the calendar. Hon. P. H. Waite, presided. 

At a meeting of the bar of the county, held during this term of 
court, the attorneys of the county adopted a uniform fee bill. It did 
not prove of much service, and this was the first united action taken 
by the bar of this county on any matter. 

Among the queer cases which sometimes occur in courts of 
justice, the following is told as a veritable one. It could hardly have 
happened in any but an "Arkansaw" court. 

A FELLOW FEELING. 

A gentleman was arranged before an Arkansas Justice on a charge of 
obtaining money under false pretenses. He had entered a store, pretending to 
be a customer, but proved to be a thief. 

"Your name is Jim Liiimore?" said the justice. 

"Yes, sir." 

"And you are charged with a crime that merits a long term in the peni- 
tentiary?"" 

'•Yes, sir." 

'•And you are guilty of the crime?" 

"lam." 

"And you aslc for no mercy?" 

"No, sir." 

"You have had a great deal of trouble within the last two years?" 

"Yes, sir, I have." 

"You have often wished that you were dead?" 

"I have, please your honor." 

"You wanted to steal money enough to talce you away from Arkansas?" 

"You are riglit, judge." 

"If a man had stepped up and shot you just as you entered the store you 
would have said, 'thank you sir'?" 

"Yes, sir, I would. But, judge, how did you ttnd out so much about me?" 

"Some time ago," said the judge, with a solemn air, "I was divorced from 
my wife. Shortly afterwards you married her. The result is conclusive. I 
discharge you. Here, take this $50 bill. You have suffered enough." 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 337 

THE LEGAL PROPESSTON. 

As a member of the legal profession — though a very humble 
one indeed— the writer may be excused for some remarks here on 
the subject, which heads this brief article. It is a subject in which 
every one is more or less interested. 

Lawyers, as such, and the legal profession in general, are the 
subjects of a good deal of abuse, suspicion, invidious witicisms and 
sometimes of denunciation. A great deal of this is not merited, 
except by a few individuals. 

The profession and lawyers generally, are suspicioned and ma- 
ligned because of the inefficiency — say incompetency, or the bad 
character of a small proportion of those who belong to the profes- 
sion. The truth is that the members of the profession, generally, 
are entitled to respect and confidence. However, it is difficult to find 
a class of men or profession, who care less about abuse, or are better 
able to stand it, than lawyers. They are not very sensitive. 

The legal profession is one of the most noble in its great scope 
and in its intellectual requirements, and one of the most necessary to 
the welfare of society of any of the secular occupations. 

Its importance, in all countries, whether monarchial, or republi- 
can, or whether its members have been backed by wealth, or titles, 
or high places, or not, has been admitted. 

The legal profession, in itself, is a great republic as "The Re- 
public of Letters," in which real talent, large attainments, practical 
capacity, constitute the only gauge of rank. Lawyers in all ccun- 
rties and all times, or those who answer to that title, have always 
ranked in importance with the best classes of citizens. 

No civilized country can do without lawyers. Where laws exist, 
there must be those who know what the laws are, and who can give 
counsel as to what they are, and who can assist people in the main- 
tenance of their rights uader the laws. The knowledge of lawyers 
is also of the highest importance in the making of the laws them- 
selves. A large per centum of the members of all constitutional 
conventions, of National and State legislatures, and also of the 
highest official government incumbencies, are lawyers, and the judi- 
cial departments of all governments is their exclusive domain. 

But it is generally the fact that it is only when a man gets into 
serious personal difficulties, that he begins to appreciate the value 
of the services of an able and honorable lawyer. Lawyers hold in 
their hands much of the happiness and success of the community 
and state, for these are in a great measure dependent on the proper 
administration of wise laws. 

And considering the nature of their profession, lawyers are 
necessarily intrusted with much important business, and great con- 



338 ni STORY OF 

fidences — secrets of the most important character, relating to fami- 
lies, people's personal, private and business affairs, by all classes 
of persons, and it may be allirmed that, considering the power they 
possess in this respect, to extort money, or take other advantages, 
the legal profession is a remarkably honorable and faithful one. 
The great majority of lawyers are true to their clients, under all 
circumstances. It may be added here, notwithstanding the adverse 
suggestions heard sometimes, that a man may be a lawyer and yet 
be a man of the highest honor and integrity. He may be a Chris- 
tian man in the true sense of that name. There have always been, 
and now are many lawyers who are Christian men. 

De Tocqueville says that lawyers are attached to public order 
beyond every other consideration, and further, that he "cannot be- 
lieve a republic could subsist at the present time, if the inQuenco of 
lawyers in public business did not increase in proportion to the 
power of the people." 

The profession of the lawyer is one which, for its successful 
conduct and broadest usefulness and honor requires the largest 
ability, the best training and widest extent of learning. There is no 
branch of human knowledge, which may not be of use to a lawyer. 
This may be true largely of most professions, or vocations, but it is 
peculiarly and emphatically so of this. 

That prince of American lawyers, David Dudley Field, says that 
"Above all others, this science (that of the law) so vast, so compre- 
hensive and varied in its details, needs to be served with all the aids 
whicli institutions, professors and libraries can furnish." While a 
much lower grade of qualifications than is here indicated, may cer- 
tainly serve to equip a lawyer for ordinary practice, yet the sup- 
position that a year, or two j'ears, desultory reading in a law ofSce. 
or even a course of study for one or two years in a law school, and 
the passing of a superficial .examination for admission to the bar, 
will make a lawyer competent to take into his hands the important 
business or other interests of men, and meet successfully opposing 
counsel, is one of the great absurdities of the age. But there are 
many lawyers at the bar, at this day, who have been "gotten up" in 
this way. The idea that it is well to admit applicants to the bar 
whatever their qualification, and depend upon subsequent practice 
and study for efficiency, now appears to be passing out. 

The work of a lawyer in full practice is very laborious and 
exacting. Constant thought, close attention, investigation of prin- 
ciples and authorities, study of every phase of his cases, and the 
evidence connected therewith, are his daily task, and to a large 
extent, nightly also. 

The lawyers' work is quite different in many respects from that 
of other professions or occupations, in the fact that any opinion he 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 339 

gives, or every move he makes, is tlie subject of inspectioa and 
perliaps opposition. He therefore must always be well grounded 
and always ready. The doctor may doctor and the preacher may 
preach, for years, making perhaps many mistakes, and no fault 
may be found with them, but the lawyer must face inquiry and oppo- 
sition at once and constantly in his business, and his errors or 
weaknesses are taken advantage of by his o^jponent. 

A great deal more is expected of lawyers in America, than per- 
haps in any other country. In most countries lawyers devote their 
time to only one title, or branch of the law, or practice only in cer- 
tain kinds of courts, as the Law Courts, the Chancery Courts, the 
Criminal Courts, the Admiralty Courts. 

In England, for example, the profession is divided into attor- 
neys, solicitors, common law lawyers, proctors, counsellors, and 
perhaps some other designations, but in America a lawyer is ex- 
pected to be proficient in all the titles and departments of the law, 
and to practice in any or all of the courts. 

When Judah P. Benjamin, after the fall of the confederacy, 
went to England to engage in the practice of the law, he was asked 
by an English lawyer, in what division, or department of the law 
and courts he intended to jDractice, and greatly surprised the in- 
quirer, when he answered, in any of the courts where his services 
should be desired, and he did, and that with great success. In the 
larger cities of this country tliereare, however, lawyers who devote 
their time to practice in some particular courts, or branch of the 
law. Daniel Webster once said of eminent American lawyers, that 
"they work hard, live well, and die poor." 

And now another phase of the subject. It must be admitted 
that the profession has in some localities, perhajjs in many to some 
extent, fallen into considerable disrepute, as above intimated. 

This is not because of the real character of the legal profession 
itself, but because of the incompetent and dishonest jjersons who 
have gotten into it, and their evil practices, as has already been sug- 
gested. But a further word needs to be said. It is charged against 
the profession, that what was once known as legal ethics and honor, 
are lai'gely unknown at this day. 

It is said that legal ethics taught that it was dishonorable for a 
lawyer to take contingent feep— that a lawyer who had heard a case 
in the capacity of a court, and rendei-ed a decision therein, should 
not, on appeal to a higher court, act as the attorney of either party 
—that a lawyer should not hear a case, as a Judge, in which he had 
at any time been an attorney, even if no objection is made, or even 
if consent of parties is given — that an attorney engaged in a case, 
should not counsel or conspire with the attorney of the other 
side — that a Judge should not give counsel to either party.or instruct 



340 HISTORY OF 

or hear one party, or his attorney, as to the merits of a case in 
the absence of the party and his attorney on the other side — that 
an attorney who has given an opinion or is employed on one side of 
a case, should not hear, or be employed on the other side at any 
time — that no attorney should be guilty of barratrj'. maintenance, 
or champerty, whether the law permits either of them, or not. 

Yet it is claimed that these things are done, quite commonly. 
It is also alleged, that it is a violation of legal ethics and honor for 
a lawyer, in the employment of a corporation, company, or individ- 
ual, to permit himself to be elected to a state legislature, or con- 
gress, for the purpose of promoting, or protecting the interests of 
his employer, thus ignoring his oath and dishonoring his office of a 
legislator, and instead of representing the people— his constituents, 
represents a client for pay, so far,at least, as his client's interests are 
involved, and whatever the interests of his constituents may be. 
And this, it is alleged in many places, is getting to be quite common 
in both our state and national legislatures. And it is doubtless true, 
that in congress and in many state legislatures, attorneys of great 
corporations and moneyed interests appear as members. 

It is said also, that there is a class of lawyers who dishonor the 
profession by living on, what may be termed, legal garbage, carrion 
— those who take doubtful personal injury suits, on speculation, or 
contingent fees — those who rummage the records of courts and 
titles, for the purpose of taking advantage of people's errors or 
oversights, to rob them of their property, or to extort money from 
them — those who institute suits without merit, for the purpose of 
getting fees, or making something by compromise — those who insti- 
tute, or threaten to institute suits for the purpose of levying black- 
mail — those wlio hang about saloons and jiolice courts and police 
officers, for the purpo.se of getting business, and finally, those who 
can be hired to do any kind of dirty work which no honorable man 
would do for himself. 

Undoubtedly there are such lawyers, and they are generally 
known in the profession, and at large, as pettifoggers, shysters, 
scalpers, razorbacks and sharks, and often end their career in the 
perpetration of crimes. These fellows are usually practitioners of 
very large pretentions, and they constitute the class of lawyers who 
bring odium upon the profession. A community where many of 
them, or any of them, in fact, are to be found, is to be pitied. What 
produces them? Want of capacity sufficient to warrant success in 
honorable practice or want of moral principle, profligate or evil 
lives, by which they forfeit the coutideuce of the public, are usually 
the causes. The lawyer who has reached the sage conclusion that 
it is better for his business, as a lawyer, to have the reputation of 
being a shrewd knave, rather than that of being an honorable man, 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 341 

has traveled a long ways on the road to failure and the devil. Many- 
young men are placed in the professions who are not, by their nat- 
ural talents or tastes fitted for them, or for the one they enter. 

The question of a young man's adaptability, his natural capacity 
and taste for an occupation, is a serious one and should be well con- 
sidered before he enters upon it. It is a bad thing to spoil a good 
farmer, mechanic or merchant, to make a poor lawyer, doctor or 
preacher. There are thousands of men in the legal profession who 
have no natural adaptation for it, and sooner or later fail as lawyers 
and drift into clerkships and small agency business, all very well 
in themselves, and useful, but they are not — the practice of the 
law, technically speaking. 

The great remedy for the evils above referred to, is the exer- 
cise of more care in entering young men on the study of the 
law. the requirement of a much higher standard of qualifica- 
tions, that is, more thorough and extended learning, better instruc- 
tion as to the morals and dignity and honor of the profession, and 
the requirement of passing, satisfactorily, a more rigid examina- 
tion before admission to the bar. 

Our great law schools, the American Bar Association, and the 
various State Bar Associations, are doing much toward elevating 
the standards of the legal jjrofession. 

The relevancy of the preceding remarks on the subject of the 
legal profession, to our history, will become more apparent when 
we reach the closing year of this history, in which will be found 
some observations relating to the Bar of this county. 

LEGISLATION. 

The fourteenth State Legislature assembled January 2d, and 
adjourned March 1st. 

The legislation of this year, relating to this county, was: 

1st. An act to incorporate the village of Blue Earth City. 

2d. An act to authorize townships, cities and incorporated vil- 
lages, in Faribault county to vote a five per cent tax to aid in the 
construction of railroads. 

3d. An act amending an act entitled an act to authorize the 
Minnesota Valley Railroad Company to construct a branch line from 
Mankato, or some point near thereto, to the south line of Faribault 
county. 

4th. An act to authorize the Southern Minnesota Railroad Com- 
pany to construct and operate a branch from some suitable point, on 
its main line, in Faribault county, by way of Blue Earth City, to the 
Iowa State line. 

5th. An act to authorize the Winona and St. Peter Railroad 
Company, its successors or assigns, to construct a branch road from 



342 HISTORY OF 

Waseca, in Waseca county, via Blue Earth City, in Faribault county, 
to the I0W&, State line, and for other purposes. 

6th. An act, approved March 1st, to change the name of the 
town of Guthrie, in Faribault county, to Delavan. 

7th. A memorial to congress for a mail route from Blue Earth 
City to Banks, in Faribault county. 

8th. An act dividing the State into three congressional districts, 
by which this county was placed in the first district. 

The following acts were somewhat remotely related to this 
county: 

9th. An act to authorize the Minneapolis and St. Louis Rail- 
way Company to build branch lines from Minneapolis, and other 
points, to the south line of the State. 

10th. An act to enable the cities, towns and villages in the 
counties of Siblej% Nicollet and Blue Earth to aid in the construc- 
tion of a railroad from Carver, in Carver county, by way of Hender- 
son, St. Peter and Mankato, to the State line of Iowa. 

11th. An act to change the names of certain persons residing 
in Faribault county. 

12th. An act appropriating sixteen hundred dollars, to re-im- 
burse Floyd Smith, of Faribault county, for expenses and damages 
arising from an arrest, upon the requisition of the governor of Wis- 
consin. A joint resolution was also adopted, asking the State of 
Wisconsin to indemnify the State of Minnesota for moneys appro- 
priated for the above purpose. 

The facts of this case, briefly stated, are as follows: On the 
fifth day of January, 1871, a requisition was issued by the governor 
of Wisconsin, upon the governor of Minnesota, for the arrest and 
extradition of Floyd Smith, of this county, upon the charge of steal- 
ing a horse from one Clemens, of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, in De- 
cember. 1869. Smith was arrested and conveyed to Wisconsin for 
trial, and was indicted, tried and convicted of the alleged offense, 
by reason of false or mistaken evidence produced against him by 
the prosecution, and was sentenced to the Wisconsin State Prison 
for two years, and was taken there and confined as a common felon 
for several weeks, when an application was made to the governor of 
Wisconsin, for the pardon of said Smith, who ordered an investiga- 
tion into the merits of the case. The investigation resulted in prov- 
ing conclusively, and beyond all doubt, that Smith was innocent of 
the offense charged, or of any oifense, or color of criminality in the 
premises, and was immediately and unconditionally pardoned. 

The arrest, trial and other proceedings in the matter, resulted 
in a loss to Smith, of about three thousand dollars, and left him with 
no property, and involved in debt to the extent of several hundred 
dollars, and with the support of a large family to provide for. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 343 

A great state or nation, can do no nobler act, or attest its dig- 
nity and nobility, in no better manner, than in the defease of its 
humblest citizen from injustice, or the abuse of his rights and liber- 
ties, by the authority, mistakenly exercised, or otherwise, of any 
other state or nation. And this act was not only creditable to the 
State, but was alike honorable to the many private citizens who 
assisted in the work of righting the wrongs of their neighbor. 

The members of the legislature for this county for this year 
were E. H. Hutchins in the Senate, and S. P. Child and Henry M. 
Huntington in the House. Thomas George, of this county, was ser- 
geant-at-arms of the House. 

The State of Wisconsin, did, subsequently re-imburse the State 
of Minnesota, for all its expenditures in this case. 

THE ADVERTISER. 

The Winnebago City Advertiser appeared February 29th, taking 
the place of the Press. 

The editor, E. A. Hotchkiss, Esq., says: "We own the Advertiser 
office — do not owe one cent on it. * * * jf ^q^ wish to 

subscribe, please enclose one dollar to the editor. If you have no 
dollar, send us the names of four subscribers with four dollars and 
you will receive a free copy. If you do not like the paper and do 
not want it, at any rate, return a single copy to this office." * * * 

"It is one thing to be born great, another thing to have great- 
ness thrust upon you, and three times as much, to be obliged to 
shoulder a printing office against your will." 

Several months afterwards, Mr. A. A. Huntington purchased 
the Advertiser office, and the paper came out, under the former name 
of the Winnebago City Press, Mr. Huntington being editor and pro- 
prietor. 

WIND AND WEATHER. 

A great snow storm occurred on Monday night, February 12th, 
and continued through Tuesday and Tuesday night. The wind blew 
a hurricane, the air was filled with snow, and the cold was intense. 
Quite a number of people and some stock were frozen to death in 
counties west and northwest of this. 

The spring was very late. Some little wheat was sown the last 
days of March and the first days of April. A great storm of wind and 
snow prevailed over the country on the 14th and 15th days of April. 
Then came frequent heavy rains, owing to all of which the greater 
part of the wheat was not sown until the last week in April and first 
week of May, and much of the oats was sown after the fifteenth of 
May, and but little corn was planted until after the seventeenth of 
May. Low grounds were very mirey. About the middle of May, the 



344 IllSrOnV OF 

roads were almost impassable and the streams were very high. As a 
consequence, farmers wore much discouraged and fears were enter- 
tained of a wet summer. 

PRICES — MONEY. 

Prices in the spring averaged as follows: Wheat, $1.00; oats, 
25 cents; potatoes, 25 cents per bushel, and Hour $3.50 per hundred. 
In May wheat went up to $1.33 at Delavan. Money, during the 
spring and summer, was very scarce, and although wheat brought 
a fair price, there was but little surplus for sale, until after harvest. 
Notwitlistanding the hard times, however, the people did not bor- 
row so much money, at high rates of interest, as in former years, 
which was certainly a good symptom. Indeed, there were already 
premonitions of financial troubles near at hand. 

DRIFTWOOD. 
(Prom Post, Blue Eiirlh City.) 

— February 24th. A. Ilolliday of this place, has coiumeoced the erection of a 
(water power) grist mill on the Blue Earth river. 

—The iDs'ruiuenls have be^-n orderufi for a brass band (costing $212.00.) 
(This was the tlrst band at Blue Earth City.) 

—An e.xtensive revival of religion is in progress at Rice Lake (Foster town- 
ship) in this county, almost the whole community taking part. 

—March 3d. The first goese passed north on Monday and the weather-wise 
are, therefore, predicting an early spring. 

— There is more merit in the proposition to build a railroad from Waseca to 
Blue Earth City, than many would suppose, without some examination. 

—March 9th. Col. Thompion's cheese factory at Wells, will commence oper- 
ations on April lOth. (This was the first cheese factory in the county, and one of 
the best in llie United States.) 

—March 16lh. The Republicans at Wells have formed a thorough organi- 
zation for the promulgation of correct political principles. 

— A local clergyman, in presenting a subscription paper to an "outsider" 
the other day, remarked that it was a matter of economy to belong to some 
church, for, said he. "You outsiders are like apple trees along the road, every- 
body takes a 'bang' at you." 

GOOD-FRIDAY. 

"Well may the cavern depths of earth 
Be shaken, and her mountains nod; 
Well may the sheeted dead come forth 
To gaze upon a suffering God." — Whittier. 

Good-Friday is a legal holiday in many of the states. It has 
always been observed by a portion of our citizens, but not so gen- 
erally as it should be. 

The day is a fast-day in the church calendar, and is kept in com- 
memoration of that awful event, the crucifiction of Jesus, the Christ. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 345 

The day has been observed from the very earliest ages of the Chris- 
tian Church. 

Because of the great good, even our salvation which we derive 
from the death of Jesus, our Saviour, the day is called Good Friday. 

Salvation! Oh most glorious hope! A hope, a faith indeed, 
which, if blotted out to-day, would fill the world with despair! 

The crucifiction took place on the day before the Jewish Pass- 
over, and the Passover comes, annually, on the Jewish Sabbath 
(Saturday), after the full moon, which falls on, or next after, the 
twenty-first day of March. 

It is said by historians, that the death, by crucifiction, was oneof 
the great punishments inflicted by Roman law in that age, and was 
lingering and exceedingly painful, and was only infliated upon 
slaves and the greatest criminals. It was ever deemed a death of 
great shame and dishonor. 

After a trial, which was a most gross travesty upon all sense of 
justice and right, Mark says (Chap. XV), "Christ was mocked, 
scoui'ged, smitten, spit upon and crowned with thorns." He was 
numbered with the transgressors. He was sentenced at six o'clock 
in the morning. 

"I saw Him 
la the J udgment Hall, before the haughty 
Pilate; He— the God — Man — arraigned before 
The changing justice of a human bar!"— Z. C. 

Here is a copy of what is alleged to be the sentence of death, 
against our Saviour. Something which but few people of this age 
have ever seen, and this is the most remarkable judicial sentence 
which has ever been pronounced in the world. It is word for word 
as follows: 

"Sentence pronounced by Pontius Pilate, Intendent of the Lower Province 
"of Galilee, that Jesus of Nazareth, shall suffer death by the Cross. 

"In the Seventh year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, and un the 24th 
"day of the month of March, in the most holy city of Jerusalem, during the 
"Pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas. 

"Pontius Pilate, Intendent of the Province of Lower Galilee, sitting in 
"judgment on the presidential seat of the Praitors, sentences Jesus of Nazareth 
"to death on the Cross, between two robbers. 

"As the numerous and notorious testimonials of the people prove: — 

"]. Jesus is a misleader. 

"2. He has excited the people to sedition. 

"3. He is an enemy of the law. 

"4. He called himself the Son of God. 

"5. He calls himself, falsely, the King of Israel. 

"6. He went into the temple, followed by a multitude carrying palms in 
"their hands. 

"Jesus to be taken out of Jerusalem, through the gates of Tournes." 



3-lC EISOTBY OF 

"The witnesses who have signed t" the execuliun of Jesus are: 

"1. Daniel llobani, Pharisee. 

"2. John Zorababel. 

";!. Raphael Robani. 

"4. Capet. (See note below.) 

He was led to Mount Calvary, where He was crucified at the 
third hour, (nine o'clock a. m.), and Matthew says. He died about 
the ninth hour, (three o'clock p. m. ). He was taken down from the 
cross and entombed at six o'clock in the evening. 

"At Calvary, I saw Ilim crucified; 
The bleeding side— the wounded head— 
The pierced hands and feet— that did atone, 
For human sin— the Holy Lamb of God, 
That took away the sins of the whole world! 
Ah! then I saw in Him, the Promised Hope 
Of Israel, of whom the prophets wrote— 
He who should save His people from their sins! 
Then the shut doors of my stout heart gave way, 
And I believed and trusted as a child!"— Z. C. 

Such was the cruel death of Him who "died for the ungodly" 
and in "His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree;" He, 
who. in that hour of inconceivable agony and death, could pray in 
behalf of His murderers, —"Father, forgive them, they know not 
what they do." 

It is written that fi'om the sixth hour (noon), to the ninth (three 
o'clock, p. m. ), the hour of Christ's death — there was darkness over 
the whole land, and that at the moment of His death the earth 
quaked, the rocks were rent, and the vail of the Jewish temple was 
rent in twain from top to bottom. 

"It is finished," He exclaimed. "The work He came to do in the 
flesh. His humiliation and suffering; the life He came to live, mani- 
festing the power and love of the Father; the fulfillment of all the 
types and prophecies concerning Him; the death He came to die, and 
the redemption He came to accomplish, so far as His Messianic 
office as the Son of Man was concerned, were finished." 

No other death has ever been recorded in the annals of time of 
such awful incidents and profound import as this, and now even 
after the lapse of nearly nineteen hundred years, wherever the story 
of the cross is read or told, it strikes and thrills the deepest chords 
of the human heart and understanding. 

That the anniversary of this great and solemn day should be 
remembered and be observed by all Christian people, everywhere, 
by the most solemn religious services and by refraining from busi- 
ness, is evidently proper, and as a matter of fact it may happily be 
stated that the observance of the day is becoming more and )nore 
general, with the passing years, especially in the cities. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 347 

Note— The seLtence above quoted is engraved on a plate of brass in the 
Hebrew language, and on its sides are the following words: "A similar plate 
has been sent to each tribe." It was discovered in the year 1280, in the city of 
Aquilla, in the Kingdom of Naples, by a search made for Roman antiquities, 
and it remained there until it was found by the Commission of Arts in the 
French army in Italy. Up to the time of the campaign in Southern Italy it was 
preserved in the sacristy of the Carthusians, near Naples, where it was kept in 
a box of ebony. Since then the relic has been kept in the chapel of Caert. The 
Carthusians obtained the privilege, by their petitions, that the plate might be 
kept by them, which was an acknowledgment of the sacrifice they made for the 
French army. The French translation was made literally by the members of the 
Commission of Arts. Denon had a facsimile of the plate engraved, which was 
bought by Lord Howard, on the sale of his cabinet, for 2,890 francs. There seems 
to be no historical doubt as to the authenticity of this plate. The reasons of 
the sentence correspond exactly with those of the Gospel. 

EASTER. 

Easter being a day of particular and general observance, an- 
nually, by a large portion of the people of this county, as it is 
throughout Christendom, and occurring so soon after Good Friday, 
a legal holiday, may be referred to briefly here. 

The English word Easter is probably derived from the Saxon 
word "Osten," which means "rising." The word Easter occurs once 
in the authorized version of the New Testament, Acts, 12th chapter 
and 4th verse, where it is used for the word Passover, but in the 
new version, the word Passover is used at this place. 

As to the time of celebrating Easter, much dispute existed in 
the early church, but the matter was finally settled by the great 
council of Nice, held in the year 325. As then determined, it comes 
on the first Sunday after the full moon, which happens upon or next 
after March 21st, and if the full moon happened on a Sunday, Easter 
day is the Sunday after. It cannot fall earlier than March 22d, nor 
later than April 25th. 

Easter is a feast day in the church calendar, and is usually 
accounted one of the leading events of the Christian year, the great- 
est in fact — and it has from the earliest ages of the church been 
designated as "the Queen of Festivals." 

"O day of days! Shall hearts set free 
No 'minstrel rapture' find for thee? 
Thou art the Sun of other days, 
They shine by giving back thy rays." — Keble. 

This great feast is kept in remembrance of our Lord's resurrec- 
tion from the dead, and has been observed in the church from the 
days of the Apostles down through all the Christian centuries, to 
our own time. 

Easter is the Christian Passover, and may be considered the 
continuance under the new dispensation, of the ancient Jewish 



348 HISTOnr OF 

feast. And its observance seems to be of universal obligation, as it 
is written, "Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us; therefore let 
us keep the feast." 1 Cor. v: 7 8. 

"In the lipht of the Lord's resurrection, 
His peoph' should contiuerors he; 
In the haltlc" willi evil triumphant 

From the terror of di^ath ever free. 
We shall sleep in the dust and the darkness, 

We shall waken and sint; to Ilis name 
Who will liring us to life everlasting. 
By the path, that a victor. He came." 

— Sayigster. 

Easter may now bo called a universal festival, and in its con- 
tinuous celebration from the days of the Apostles, bears unimpeach- 
able testimony to the great fact of the resurrection, which is the 
great fact of the gospel on which all depends for, saith Paul, "If 
Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is 
also vain." 1 Cor. xv: 14. And accordingly, we find that no fact of 
sacred or profane history, is better attested, few so well, as that of 
the resurrection from the dead, of Jesus, the Christ. 

On Sunday, or Lord's day, the first day of the week, is also a 
perpetual and weeklj' commemoration of the fact of the resurrec- 
tion, for it was on that day our Lord rose from the dead, and that 
event has given us the Lord's day, or the Christian Sunday, but 
Easter Sunday, the greatest Sunday of the year, is the annual and 
special commemoration of the resurrection. 

Of the manner of observing this day, in this country, and in fact 
as it has generally been observed through all the past centuries in 
most Christian lands, it may be brielly said that the principal fea- 
tures are the holding of very animated and joyful religious services 
of specially appropriate character, in the churches, and that the 
churches are usually made very attractive by floral decorations and 
the display of numei'ous mottoes and legends, posted in conspicuous 
places about the walls and arches and elsewhere, consisting of ap- 
propriate texts, as "He is risen," "The Lord is risen indeed," 
"Now is Christ risen from the dead," "The Lord is King for ever 
and ever." 

"Bring flowers to the shrine where we kneel in prayer, 
They are nature's offering, their place is there! 
They speak of hope to the fainting heart. 
With a voice of promise they come and part; 
They sleep in dust through the wintry hours. 
They break forth In glory— bring flowers, bright flowers." 

In all the varied works of nature there is no more beautiful 
symbol of the resurrection from the dead than the flowers, as they 
silently spring into life after the long, cold winter, which like death 
had wrapped them in a snowy shroud. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 349 

It is also a special Sunday school festival, greatly enjoyed by the 
children. Of the many curious customs and traditions connected with 
the Easter festival, and of the literature of Easter, but little can be 
said here. 

Among the old superstitions connected vfith the day is that 
which requires one to procure and wear for the first time on that 
day, some new article of clothing, if only a pair of gloves, and it is 
quite a current practice, in many localities, even now, to appear on 
that day in some new article of dress. 

But the greatest distinctive peculiarity in the observance of the 
day is the distribution among the children of Easter eggs, which are 
beautifully colored and ornamented with many appropriate devices. 
Tlie egg has from very ancient times been used as a symbol of the 
resurrection. For, though the egg is apparently lifeless, it contains 
the germ of life, and there comes forth from it, under the proper 
conditions, a being of life and activity, thus symbolizing the resur- 
rection of the dead unto life. The distribution also among the chil- 
dren and others of beautifully designed and ornamented Easter 
cai'ds has become a general practice at this day. 

Finally, Christian people should not, amid the Easter joys, for- 
get the Easter lesson: 

"If ye then be risen with Christ, soelc those things which are above, where 
Christ sitteth at the right hand of God."— CoL III: 1. 

As the first Easter was the event of Christ's resurrection, so the 
last Easter the world shall know, will be in the morning of the gen- 
eral resurrection, in the last day. 

"When all that are in their grave shall hear His voice, and shall come 
forth." 

"Blessed are they who shall come forth unto the resurrection of life." 

John V: SS-20. 

SCRAPS. 
From Blue Earth City .Vai(. 

—January.— Delevan is growing very rapidly. Already there are four dry 
goods stores, one hardware and one furniture store there, besides two hotels, a 
billiard hall and lumber yard. 

—February.— It may seem strange, but nevertheless true, that whisky, regu- 
larly applied to a thrifty farmer's stomach, will remove the boards from his fences, 
let cattle into his crops, kill his fruit trees, mortgage his farm, sow his fields 
with thistles, take the paint from his buildings, break the glass out of the win- 
dows and fill them with old rags, take thegloss from his clothes and the polish 
from his manners. It will bring sorrow and disgrace to his family, and lead 
him to a drunkard's grave. 

— March.- An entire winter's experience in coal burning, has convinced sev- 
eral of our citizens that it is more economical for heating purposes, than wood. 

(But little, if any, coal had been used in this county jjrior to this). 



360 HJSOTUY OF 

— May.— The public, very generally— and with much cause— complain of our 
late spring. But we are not alone; our exchanges from all jiarts of the country 
are complaining of the cold. 

—There are two pensioners in this county of the war of 1812. 

—A clergyman said the other day, that modern young ladies are not the 
daughters of Sheni and Ham, hut the daughters uf Hem and Sham. 

THE "MAIL" AND THE "BEE" 

On the twenty- fifth day of May, the last number of the Blue 
Earth City Mail appeared. Its career was but a short one. The edi- 
tor says, in this last number, "With this number of the J/a(7its pub- 
lication is discontinued. This change has been made necessary by 
our business interests. The purpose for which the paper was estab- 
lished, has been accomplished." 

The first number of The Delavan Bee appeared on the eighth day 
of June, published at Delavan, in this county, by Carr Huntington, 
formerly of Blue Earth City, editor and proprietor. We quote from 
the editor's introductory remarks: "In starting a newspaper, it is 
usual to devote a column to salutatory promises, as to the course it 
will pursue. In our case, being well-known — perhaps too well-known 
— to all the people of this county, having been among them engaged 
in this business about nine years — promises are unnecessary. In 
conducting newspapers heretofore, it is usually admitted that in every 
emergency, we have taken the side of the people and endeavored to 
protect their interests against the machinations of corrupt cliques 
and the designing of every character and quality. This course on 
our part has sometimes led along a rough path. In starting a paper 
in this thriving young village, we have been materially aided by 
the liberality of its citizens, and, of course, it will be our duty to 
labor faithfully for the advancement of its best interests, always 
remembering that its welfare is closely connected with the pro- 
gress and prosperity of the whole county." 

SUNDAY SCHOOL INTERESTS. 

The second annual session of the Faribault County Sunday 
School Association, was held at Blue Earth Cltj- on the 28th and 
29th days of May. "A large number of delegates were in attend- 
ance. The exercises throughout were conducted with animation, 
and were of great interest to all present." 

Rev. J. Door, of Winnebago City, was elected president; Rev- 
erends W. Ross and H. C. Cheadle, vice presidents; P. R. Woodard, 
of Wells, secretary, and C. B. Miner, of Verona, treasurer. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 351 

DOTS AND DASHES. 

(From Advertiitr, Winaebago City.) 

March 28th.— Seven artesian wells are in operation in the town of Lura, and 
one in Verona. 

April 18th.— It is a significant fact, that not a man in this vicinity wishes 
to rent land. They all have a farm of their own. 

May 2d.— We note with pleasure that Faribault county is not represented at 
St. Paul in the seed wheat grab. 

—Total expenses of the county for the year ending February 28th, 1872, 
were $9,198.14. 

—Mr. Bullis recently imported to this county a cow and a bull, at a cost of 
six hundred dollars. They are of the Durham breed, full blood. 

May 9th.— Base ball has broken out in our community, though it is thought 
that it will nut rage as hard as in previous seasons. 

May 30th.— Said Mr. Cantwell to his clergyman, who had a great disrelish 
for hypocracy, "How can I help to reform the world?" "By beginning with 
yourself," was the conclusive reply. 

THIS, THAT AND T'OTHER. 

The June term of the District Court, while much business was 
done, was not characteriaed by any trials of special interest. 

The calendar contained three criminal and thirty-nine civil suits. 

Hon. P. H. Waite, presiding; H. J. Neal, clerk and A. B. Davis, 
sheriff. 

A NONPLUSSED ATTORNEY. 

A correspondent at Fredonia, N. Y., writes: "Being in attendance at the 
Circuit Court in Albany in the year 1870, I happened to hear a trial of a breach 
of promise case. The plaintiff was a young lady of rather delicate nerves, and 
although, through the aid of her counsel, Hon. Lyman Tremain, her case was 
looking well, yet when she came to be cross-examined by the opposite attorney, 
Hon. Henry Smith, she quailed before his searching examination, and finally 
fell down in a swoon. The sympathies of everyone were aroused, and Mr. Smith 
saw that he must do something. The young lady's face was of a purple-red dur- 
ing her swoon, and so, when the next witness was called (a middle-aged lady), 
Mr. Smith said: 

"Witness, you saw the plaintiff faint a short time ago?" 

"Yes, sir," said the witness. 

"Well, people turn pale when they faint, do they not?" 

The witness hesitated a moment, then said, "No, not always." 

"Did you ever hear of a case of fainting where the party did not turn pate?" 

"Yes, sir." 

"Did you ever see such a case?" 

"Yes, sir." 

"When?" 

"About a year ago." 

"Where was it?" 

"In this city." 

" Who was it?" 

" ^Twas a nigger. 

The plaintiff won the case. 



352 B I STORY Ob 

The anniversary of our national independence was celebrated 
at Blue Earth City on the Fourth of July. The day was pleasant, 
and the number of people present was variously estimated at twen- 
ty five hundred to three thousand. Hon. Ara Barton, of Rice county, 
delivered the oration. The Declaration was read by the Rev. Mr. 
Cheadle, of Blue Earth City. 

A celebration was held at Wells, also, and the attendance there 
was estimated at two thousand people. Hon. M. H. Bunnell deliv 
livered the oration. 

At each place the celebration was a success and gave general 
satisfaction. The spirit of '7G still survived! 

On the sixth day of July, a terrific hail storm visited this county, 
which, by many, will long be remembered. It .seems to have started 
near Shclbyville, in Blue Earth county, passing thence southward, 
through the towns of Winnebago City, Delavan, Prescott, east side 
of Blue Earth City, west side of Emerald and thence into a small 
portion of Rome and Elmore, where the hail ceased. Its track was 
from one to three miles wide, and in many instances the entire crops 
of the farmers were destroyed. Several farmers lost as much as one 
hundred acres of grain. 

On the ninth of July a cattle fair was held at Wisner's Grove, 
in Barber township. It was only a partial success, but was a move 
in the right direction. 

THE HARVESTERS AT WORK. 

The harvest of 1872 began about the twenty-third of July and 
the weather was very favorable. The oats crop was very light, 
many fields not being cut. Barley was generally light. Corn was 
fair considering the late spring. Fife wheat, a variety long sown in 
this county, proved a failure with a very few exceptions. Some 
other varieties of wheat did well, and especially the Red Osaka, a 
new variety of Russian wheat. In fact, had it not been for this lattei- 
wheat, we could truthfully say, that the wheat crop of 1872 was a 
failure. 

HEADLESS ITEMS. 

On the twenty-sixth day of July the commissioners met to appoint 
two school land appraisers. Messrs. S. L. Rugg and A. R. More. 
Sr., were appointed. The board assembled again in September, 
which was the last meeting of the year, but did no business we care 
to note. 

Wheat which had been quite low commenced to rise about har 
vest, and from the 17th to the 20th of August, reached one dollar 
and five cents per bushel at Delavan, owing to a great wheat 
"corner" organized at Chicago. The "corner" was broken about 



FARIBAULT COUNTY. MINNESOTA. 353 

the 20lh, and wheat fell imtnediatly to eighty five cents and lower. 
Some farmers were lucky enough to get in their new crop before 
the fall. It is well that the farmers, once in a while, get a benefit 
from the grain gamblers and monopolists who usually have all the 
profits. 

On the twenty second day of August, a railroad survey was 
completed to Blue Earth City, starting at Lake Crystal and passing 
through the towns of Winnebago City, Verona and Blue Earth City 
and running thence to the Iowa State line. Less survey and more 
railroad would have suited the people better. The efforts to get a 
railroad at Blue Earth City kept this subject in a state of agitation 
for many years. 

During the spring and summer a vast immigration passed 
through this county to the counties west of this, Martin, Jackson, 
Nobles and Rock. The immigration to this county was very fair, but 
the public lands having mainly been taken long before, the great 
body of the immigrants passed on to newer localities. 

The first heavy frost of the season occurred on the night of 
September 18th, but luckily did not materially injure the grass, for 
strange as it may seem, but little hay had been secured, owing to 
the wet weather and other causes, j^rior to the frost. Happily, it 
is not often the fact, that haying is done in this county in the latter 
half of September. ■ 

At the sale of school lands this fall, about eighteen hundred 
acres were sold, at prices ranging from $5.00 to $13.00 per acre. 

THE PAIR. 

The Agricultural Society held its fair this year at Delavan, on 
the 3d and 4th days of October. 

This was one of the best fairs ever held in the county. The 
weather was very favorable and the attendance large. There was 
some two hundred entries of stock and other things, and 8157.00 were 
awarded in premiums. Yet, after all is said, the fair was not what 
it should have been, in so populous a county as this. 

STATE TEACHERS' INSTITUTE. 

A State Institute was held at Winnebago City, commencing on 
Monday, October 21st, which was attended by eighty- seven teachers. 
The institute was conducted by instructors, thoroughly prepared for 
the work, and furnished with such professional books and literature 
as was of great value to those engaged in teaching. The value of 
these institutes in presenting new methods of teaching, discussing 
and impi'oving the existing methods, introducing new subjects of in- 
struction, offering to the young teacher the experience of the old 
one, harmonizing the system of instruction throughout the county. 



354 HISTOliY OF 

and the awakening of a higher zeal and ambition in the minds and 
hearts of teachers, and in giving them a more just view of the im- 
portance of their calling, can hai-dly be overestimated. 

THE YEARLY SCUFFLE. 

This being the year of a presidential election, the hosts began 
to muster early for the conflict, throughout the whole country. 

On the fifteenth day of June, a mass convention was held at Blue 
Earth City of those who were opposed to the reelection of Gen. 
Grant to the presidency. This party was made up of and known as 
democrats and liberal republicans, and constituted the opposition to 
the republican party in the main. 

Gen. U. S. Grant was the republican, and Horace Greeley, of New 
York, the opposition candidate for the presidency. Chas. O'Connor, 
of New York, was the presidential candidate of a part of the demo- 
cratic party. The candidates for congress were Mark H. Dunnell, 
republican, and Morton S. Wilkinson, independent republican. 

There were also several State ofBcei's to be elected, and four 
amendments to the State constitution to be voted upon. 

On the nineteenth day of October the Republican County Con- 
vention was held at Blue Earth City. 

S. C. Leland, Esq., of Wells, was called to the chair, and Hon. 
A. A. Huntington, of Winnebago City, was chosen secretary. 

The attendance was full, and the convention harmonious. The 
following nominations were made: 

For Representatives — S. P. Child and M. A. Hawks. 

For Clerk of Court— H. .T. Neal. 

For Register of Deeds — F. P. Brown. 

For Auditor— W. W. White. 

For Survej''or — E. S. Levitt. 

The liberal republicans and democrats held their county conven- 
tion at Blue Earth City, on the twenty-second day of October. This 
convention was also harmonious in its action. D. H.Morse, of Verona, 
was chosen chairman, and D. P. Wasgatt, of Winnebago City, secre- 
tary. The convention then proceeded to make the following nomi- 
nations. 

J. H. Welch and T. S. Fellows, for Representatives. 

S. Pfeffer, for Register of Deeds. 

Geo. Schiod. for Auditor. 

Geo. A. Weir, for Surveyor. 

No nomination for the oflSce of Clerk of Court was made by this 
convention. 

Aaron J. Rose and Wesley Hill were announced as independent 
candidates for the office of Clerk of Court. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 355 

F. Lent ran as an independent candidate for the office of Regis 
ter of Deeds. 

The only real local subjects of contest, in this election, were the 
offices of Register of Deeds and Clerk of Court, and the contest for 
these offices was earnest and persistent. 

The election was held on the fifth day of November. Gen. 
Grant was re-elected President, by an overwhelming majority. Mr. 
Dunnell was re-elected to Congress, and the Republican candidates 
for State officers were elected. 

The following table exhibits the votes cast for the several can- 
didates named. 

President— Grant, 1,626; Greeley, 508. 

Congress — Wilkinson, 503; Dunnell, 1,596. 

Representatives — Childs, 1,647; Hawks, 1,146; Welch, 769; Pel- 
lows. 662. 

Auditor -White, 1,814; Sheid, 245. 

Register— Brown, 920; Pfeffer, 682; Lent, 539. 

Clerk of Court— Neal, 1,103; Hill, 803; Rose, 187. 

Surveyor — Leavitt, 1,423; Weir, 561. 

Court Commissioner — Kiester, 18; Rose, 11. 

County Commissioner — J. A. Dean, elected. 

TWO NOTABLE EVENTS. 

There were two events occurring in November of this year, of 
such grave importance, that a word must be said here in reference 
to them. 

On the ninth day of the month, just one year and one month 
after the great Chicago calamity, a large part of the city of Boston, 
Mass , was destroyed by fire. The loss was $75,000,000 in buildings 
and merchandise. And this great fire was not among the wooden 
structures of the city, but it was the brick, stone, iron and granite 
buildings, the finest and costliest, that went down as though they 
had been tinder. This fire was only surpassed on this continent, in 
extent, by that of Chicago, and was one of the great calamities of 
the age. 

On the twenty-ninth of the month Horace Greeley, candidate 
at the recent election for the presidency, died. But Horace Greeley 
was so great a man that the fact of his having been a candidate, 
even for the presidency, was of small consequence. He was the 
founder, and for more than a generation, the editor of the New York 
Tribune, the greatest newspaper in its day in the world, and the 
political bible of hundreds of thousands of our people, and his name 
was a household name in tens of thousands of families from their 
youth to mature age. He was the king of journalism; the great 
representative and defender of republican institutions, as he was 



356 UISTOltY OF 

one of their greatest outgrowlhs-he was the greatest citizen of the 
nation, an Amei'ican of Americans, and one of the greatest and 
grandest men of any age or nation. In his death, friend and foe 
alike, forgave and forgot what many thought the great mistake of 
his life, his candidacy for the presidency in opposition to the great 
political party of which he was the father, and bowed their heads 
in profoundest sorrow. 

THE EPIZOOTY. 

In November and December, a peculiar horse disease prevailed 
in this section of the country. The sickness commenced with a 
labored, half-suppressed cough, which rapidly increased in violence 
and was accompanied by a fever, intense heat of the mouth, whether 
dry or moist, and a running of very offensive mucus from the nos 
trils, as in distemper. The horses attacked refused all food, but evi- 
denced no disposition to lie down. In a few days the horse became 
very weak, and unless relief was afforded soon, and the greatest care 
taken of him, he died suddenly. By the best veterinary surgeons 
the disease was deemed an acute catarrh and influenza, and prevailed 
at the time as an epidemic. 

The disease originated in Canada where thousands of horses 
perished. It spread from thence into the eastern states and thence 
westward. It seemed to be most fatal in the cities, where in a day 
all the horses would be attacked and rendered unfit for labor, caus- 
ing a stoppage of business and great delay and damage. Canal 
boats, street cars, express wagons, omnibuses, mail carriages and 
the thousand and one means of transportation and conveyance in 
which horses are the motive power, ceased to run for a time. In 
some instances oxen wei-e substituted for the invalid horses. The 
mail was carried by ox team to and from Delavan and Blue Earth 
City on one day when no well horses could be had. 

Never before did people Icai-n and so fully realize the inestima 
ble value to man of that noblest of all the brute creation, the horse, 
and what a grand helper he is in the business and pleasure of the 
world. And if the lesson thus taught should procure for this valued 
servant kinder and more intelligent treatment, protection from over 
work, fair feed and attendance, care in sickness and comfortable 
stabling when his work is done, the lesson may not have cost too 
much. It is a sad fact that many a man exhibits greater brute in- 
stincts and conduct than the poor horse which has the misfortune to 
be in his charge. 

The disease was contagious and was supposed to have been 
caused by some peculiar condition of the atmosphere, and was prob- 
ably spread abroad by the atmosphere, as well as by infection. It 
was not so fatal in Minnesota as in the states further east, and in 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 357 

this county but few horses died, though the disease lingered among 
some of them for a long time. As to the treatment of the disease, 
experience proved that the best course was to give but little medi- 
cine. Perfect rest and keeping the horse warm and dry, and other- 
wise carefully nursing him, feeding no hay, oats, corn or barley, but 
only warm bran mash, with a little oat or rye straw, was the best 
treatment. Small doses of bromide of potassium, given two or 
three times a day in a bran mash for the first two or three days 
while the inflammation lasted, and putting tar on the trough or man- 
ger, and on the horses nose, proved the best medicine when any 
was deemed necessary. 

As to the name of this epidemic, it was first called the Canadian 
Horse disease, and various names descriptive of the disease were 
framed in Latin or Greek, among which were "Hippoparenarhoea" 
and "Hipporhenophlegmatoblennonalastalagmatus," which is credi- 
ted to the N. Y. World, but not pi'oving convenient in every-day con- 
versation did not become popular. Then came Epizootic and Epi- 
zooty and Epizoot, and finally finished up with simple "Zoot." 

When the disease first appeared, it was supposed to be a new 
disease, as it was not mentioned in the books, but an old book- worm 
discovered that it had prevailed in Greece, about four hundred 
years before the Christian era, an'd this extended account of the 
disease and its treatment, is given here, so that if it again appears, 
say four hundred years after us, they who may see this account 
may know that we have had it. 

A COLD WINTER. 

The first storm heralding the approach of winter, occurred on 
November 13th, and closed up the plowing for the year. 

The week preceding Christmas was intensely cold and quite 
stormy. In exposed jjositions on the prairies it was reported that 
the thermometer ran down to 37° below zero, at other places less 
exposed to 25° and 30° below. A great scarcity of fuel existed at 
the time of this cold spell, especially in the villages, and some per- 
sons on the prairies were compelled to use corn for fuel. In many 
places on the prairies of the west, corn has been substituted for 
wood and coal as fuel, with much success. 

The winter of 1872-3 was very severe, especially in the month 
of December, as above intimated, not only in Minnesota, but through- 
out the country. In fact, when very cold weather prevails in Min- 
nesota, generally, it is usually pretty cold in many other localities, 
as will appear from the following reports from widely separated 
parts of the country. 



358 EISTOIiY OF 

THE COLD EVERYWHERE. 

MPiuphis, Tcnn., Doc. 24.— To-day was the coldest ever known here in 25 
years, the mercury ran^'in^' from 5 to 10 above zero during the day. Navigation 
is entirely suspended. 

Pittsburg, Dec. 24.— The weather continues cold; the mercury going below 
zero at 4 o'clock. 

Cincinnati, Dec. 24. — The temperature is sinking rapidly since dark, the 
therniomoter going 2 below at 8 o'clock. 

St. Louis, Dec. 24. — Last night was the coldest of the season, the mercury 
falling to 8 degrees below zero by the signal service thermometer, and to 12and 
1.0 by ordinary instruincnls, according to location. To-uigbt, however, the 
temperature is much milder. 

Chicago. Dec. 24.— The weather has moderated again. Thermometers which 
were 20 below this morning are up to zero to-night. Accounts from all parts 
state that the weather for the past 24 hours was as cold as ever known. 

Fort Scott, Kan., Dec. 24. — Last night was the coldest known in this sec- 
tion. Mercury 18 degrees below zero at 7 a. m. 

Bath, Me., Dec. 24.— The weather for the past few days has been bitter cold. 

THE FIRST COURT HOUSE. 

The project of building a court house, for the use of the county 
officers and for court purposes, heretofore referred to, after much 
planning and discussion, resulted in the erection, on Court House 
Square, in Blue Earth City, of a brick building, thirty -seven by 
forty-five feet in size and two stories high. The first story is divided 
into five rooms, for county offices, the second story is fitted up for 
a court room. A commodious fire-proof vault is attached on the 
rear of the building, and the whole structure is well built and well 
finished. The cost was about five thousand dollars, the larger part 
of which expense was paid by the county, and the remainder by the 
township of Blue Earth City. No public debt was incurred in the 
enterprise. The building was completed late in the fall, and several 
county ofiicers moved into their respective rooms, in the holiday 
season, between Christmas and New Year's day. 

This structure is not large, nor imposing, but is substantial, a 
credit to the county, and will serve the purposes of the county for 
many years. Few counties have been so well, and at the same time, 
so economically provided for, in this respect, as ours. 




THE FIRST COURT HOUSE. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 359 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

A. D. 1873. 



" All pitying heaven. 

Severe in mercy, chastening in its love, 
Oft-times in dark and awful visitation, 
Doth interpose, and leads the wanderer back 
To the straight path." — Baillie. 

The first day of January was very mild and pleasant. The new 
year was ushered in under very favorable weather auspices, but if 
this fact was taken as predictive of a pleasant winter, a favorable 
spring or a prosperous year, the horoscope was not well read. 

The seventh day of January, 1873, was an eventful one in this 
county. 

"Your plea is good, but still I say, Beware; 
Laws are explained by men; so have a care."— Pope. 

And first, on this day the district court commenced its winter 
term, Hon. P. H. Waite, judge. There were forty civil and four 
criminal cases on the calendar. There was a very large attendance 
of attorneys and of the people of the county, at this term. It was the 
first term of court held in the new court house. It was also the only 
term of this court, held in the county, during the year. The June 
term, owing to the sickness of the judge, was not held. A special 
session was called for July 15th, but this term, also, at the request of 
the ^oard of county commissioners, was dispensed with. 

The second event of the day was the assembling of the county 
commissioners. W. W. Potter, of Verona, was chosen chairman 
for the year. Of the business transacted by the board at this and 
subsequent meetings, it is not necessary to note anything here. 
Their subsequent meetings were held on the fourth day of March, 
June 10th and September 6th. 

Another event of the seventh was the meeting of the Agricul- 
tural Society, at Blue Earth City. J. A. Latimer was elected presi- 
dent, Charles Stockman, treasurer, and A. H. Bullis, secretary. It 
is necessary to say that there was no other business transacted at 
this meeting, worthy of record here, but while we are penning these 
lines, we observe in a newspaper lying before us, the following 
golden words : 

"In the wide world there are no more important things than farmers' boys. 
They are not so important for what they are, as for what they will be. At 



3G0 HISTORY OF 

present they are, too often, of little consequence. But farmers' boys always 
will be the material out of which the noblest men are made. They have health 
and strcnRtb: they have bone and muscle; they have heart and will; they have 
nerve and patience; they have amtiition and endurance; and these are the ma- 
terials that malce men. Not buckrams and broadcloth, and patent leather and 
beaver fur, and kid gloves and watch seals, are the materials of which men are 
made. It takes better stuff to make a man. It is not fat and flesh, and swag- 
ger and self-conceit; nor yet smartness, nor flippancy, nor foppery, nor fastness. 
These make fools, not men: not men such as the world wants, nor such as it 
will honor and bless. Not artistically curled hair, nor a cane, nor a pipe, nor a 
cigar, nor a (luid of tobacco, nor an oath, nor a glass of beer or brandy, nor a 
dog or gun, nor a pack of cards, nor a novel, nor a v\ilgar book of love and 
murder, nor a tale of adventures, that makes a man, or has anything to do with 
making a man. Farmers' boys ought to keep clear of all these idle, foolish 
things. They should be employed with nobler objects. They have yet to be 
men of the clear grit— honest, intelligent, industrious men."— Herald of Health. 

A GREAT STORM. 

On the same day, the seventh, there happened one of the most 
destructive storms ever known in the northwest. We quote the fol- 
lowing well written and truthful account of this storm, taken from 
the Blue Earth Citij Post. 

It is not often that wo are called upon to record a more severe storm than 
that which occurred during the past week, commencing on Tuesday afternoon. 
The day opened warm and bright, presenting a marked contrast with the 
severe cold weather which had preceded it. All the forenoon it grew warmer, 
and people congratulated themselves that the severe cold spell had come to an 
end for the present. The town was full of people, and everybody was astir. In 
the afternoon alxiut two o'clock, entirely without warning, the wind veered 
around into the northwestand in a moment raged furiously, ttllingthe air with 
fine snow, and rendering objects invisible at a few rods distance. All the after- 
noon it continued to increase in severity, and night closed in with a "nor'- 
wester" in full force. During the night the war of the elements continued. 
The wind rose and fell in fitful gusts, seeming to gather strength with each 
subsidence, and threatening great damage. The fine snow was driven through 
every nook and cranny, and settled upon resting places in fantastic shapes. 
Many passed a sleepless night, expecting every moment that their houses would 
be overturned, take Are, or that .some other calamity would occur. It was a 
weird scene, well calculated to strike terror to stout hearts. 

Morning came, but brought no cessation of the storm, and daylight broke 
upon a scene of desolation and discomfort. People who wore in town the day 
before were compelled to remain all night, and together with those attendant 
upon the court and the meeting of the board of county commissioners, filled 
the hotels to overflowing, and drew upon the hospitalities of our citizens. Busi- 
ness was suspended, no session of the court was hold, and all congregated 
around the fires speculating upon the probable loss of life, and comparing the 
storm with preceding ones. All day long old Boreas revelled and howled in 
his strength, piling snow drifts to great heights, only to remove them the next 
moment to some other locality. The feelings of hilarity and good cheer, usually 
ruanifested upon such occasions were entirely wanting, and instead thereof was 
a sense of anxiety for those who might be exposed to the mercy of the storm. 
Those separated from their families were anxious for the safety of the dear 



FABIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 361 

ones at home, while no doubt those at home were equally anxious for those 
who were away from home. 

The storm still raged when Wednesday night came, continuins through the 
night and on Thursday, though with less severity. On that day a few ven- 
tured to their homes. The court resumed business, and a feeling of relief be- 
gan to manifest itself. By Friday morning the storm had almost ceased, and 
during the day it stopped entirely; Saturday opened beautifully, and was a 
pleasant day. 

So far we have heard of no loss of life or serious damages, although there 
were some narrow escapes. Two little girls of Mr. Everson, living in Pilot 
Grove township who were absent at a neighbor's when the storm commenced, 
started for home, and nearly perished on the way. A school in the town of 
Elmore was compelled to remain in the school house for two days and a night, 
and doubtless other schools had the same experience. 

Many families were upon short allowances for fuel and perhaps for food, 
but as the weather was not remarkably cold, they managed to weather it 
through. 

Taken all in all, this storm will pass into history as one of the severest 
storms that has ever occurred in this region. 

— Since the above was written we learn that a German woman living near 
Wisner's Grove, in this county, was frozen to death. It is, also, rumored that 
a school teacher was frozen to death in Martin county. 

Several weeks elapsed before any definite information could be 
obtained of the loss of life, and the extent of the damage done by 
the storm, and many startling rumors were afloat. Great exaggera- 
tions are usual on such occasions. Estimates heard on the streets, 
and found in newspapers, based upon reports, were made, by which 
it was claimed, that as many as one thousand people had lost their 
lives, but this was finally reduced to five hundred and less. The 
matter, when subsequently investigated, proved not so bad after 
all, though still a sad reckoning, as appears by the following 
statement. 

LOSS OP LIFE BY THE STORM. 

"Gov. Austin made an official report to the legislature in regard to the 
effects of the great storm of January last, resulting in the death of seventy 
persons, and the injury of thirty-one more. The tabular statement by counties 
is as follows: 

Lost their Seriously 
County. lives. Injured. 

Blue Earth 1 1 

Brown 3 1 

Chippewa 3 

Clay 2 

Cottonwood 1 

Dakota 1 

Dodge 1 

Douglas 1 ] 

Faribault 1 

Freeborn 2 

Grant 3 

Kandiyohi 9 4 

Lac Qui Parle 1 

Lyon . 4 3 

Martin 2 

Meeker 2 1 



362 HISTORY OF 

„ . Lost tlieir Seriously 

O0""<y- lives. Injured. 

Mower 1 

M u rray o 

Nicollet 2 

Nobles . 3 1 

Otter Tail 8 ;{ 

Pope 1 2 

Retiville 1 

Koek 1 

Sibley 4 i 

Steele 1 

Stevens 3 i 

Swift 2 

Waseca 1 i 

Watonwan 8 ."? 

Yellow Medicine 1 2 

Total 70 ;n 

The loss of live stock from exposure appears to be about as follows: 

Head of horned cattle 250 

Horses 25 

Mules 3 

Sheep and hogs 10 

It is probable, however, that the entire loss of stock, could it be known, 
would exceed these figures." 

THE STATUTE MAKERS. 

Our legislature assembled January 7th and adjourned March 7th. 

Our members were E. H. Hutchins. iu the Senate, and S. P. 
Child and M. A. Hawks, in the House of Representatives. Bailey- 
Madison, of this county, was sergeant-at-arms of the House. 

But little of the legislation of IH73, had any direct i-eference to 
this county. There were only the following acts: "An Act to 
amend an act entitled an act to incorporate the village of Blue 
Earth City." "An Act to incorporate the village of Winnebago City." 
"An Act to authorize the county commissioners of Faribault 
county to change the boundaries of independent school district of 
Blue Earth City." 

THE SPRING AND SEEDING. 

The spring of this year opened about the first of March and the 
snow, of which there was considerable, w^t off pretty rapidly and 
without much rain. Some little wheat was sown as early as the 
twelfth day of March, but, owing to occasional rains, the fall of slight 
snows and freezing, the ground was kept in bad condition, and as 
late as the twenty-second day of April, not one-third of the wheat 
was sown, and some that had been sown quite early, rotted. Low 
grounds could not be seeded to much extent and where seeded, pro- 
duced nothing. It was remarked that probably one fourth of the 
wheat was sown after the first of May, and nearly all the oats. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 363 

MAY DAY. 

And here is another red-letter day, established by custom, May- 
day. The first day of May, has, through many centuries and in 
almost all countries, been distinguished by some sort of civil, social, 
or religious observances, festive and floral. It has become, in mod- 
ern times, in most countries, a children's and youth's gala day, and 
it is for them, that this brief notice of the day is written. 

May day parties, or festivals, the May pole, entwined with its 
garlands and wreaths of leaves and flowers, around which the young 
folks form a revolving circle, singing and dancing, and the flower- 
crowned May Queen, the garnishing of the churches, dwellings and 
gateways with flowers and boughs, on the first day of May, are 
usages which have been known fi'om a remote age. 

"So you must wake aad call me early, call me early, mother dear; 
Tomorrow '11 be the happiest time of all the glad new year; 
Tomorrow '11 be of all the year, the maddest, merriest day, 
For I'm to be the Queen O' the May, mother, I'm to be the Queen O' the 
May. '■ — Tennyson. 

The lighting of fires on the hill tops on this day, was a custom of 
the ancient Druids and the Scandinavian people. In that far gone 
time, it was not only a children's day, but the aged, the most ven- 
erable, the kingly and priestly, were leading actors in the day's fes- 
tivities. While many of the old usages incident to this day, have 
long since become obsolete, there are still some existing — as May 
day parties, the floral decoration of the dwellings and some others, 
of a social character, which may well be continued. The amusing 
custom which obtains among the children and youths, of hanging May 
baskets, is one worthy of commendation. This custom was intro- 
duced, in certain portions of this country, at an early day, and is 
quite an old one in many places. 

Some baskets of various shapes are made of paj)er, of divers 
colors, tastefully ornamented, and filled with flowers, and containing 
some little written message of love or friendship, and the name of 
the recipient, are hung, secretly, just after dark, in the evening of 
May day, by the donor, on the door latch, or other convenient place, 
at the residence of the recipient, who is warned of the presentation 
by a sudden knocking on the door. But it is an essential part of the 
proceeding, that the basket be hung secretly and the giver be not 
caught at it. A great deal of fun is enjoyed in the seeking to avoid 
detection by the donor, and in the watchful effort of the receiver, to 
see who hangs the basket, and many little artifices are used on both 
sides, making great sport for the young folks. And this, with some 
other May day usages, are observed to some extent in this county 
every year. 



364 HISTOHY OF 

There arc many of these pleasant social customs, very dear to 
the hearts of children and young people, which should be encouraged 
by parents and others, as they add greatly to the enjoyment and 
the pleasant memories of childhood's years — memories often the 
purest and best we can ever know in this mortal life. 

A SCRAP HEAP. 

Immigration commenced early in May, and the roads running 
westward were lined with the white covered wagons of the hundreds 
seeking new homes on the fertile prairies of south western Minne- 
sota. But little of the immigration stopped here, though lands in 
this county were very cheap. 

Heavy rains set in about the seventeenth of May, and the waters 
became very high. A great deal of "mighty east wind" prevailed 
during May. 

But little corn was planted in 1873, and much of that planted 
was not gotten into the ground until after the twenty-sixth of May. 

Owing to some unaccountable cause, possibly the hard winter 
of 1872-3, or the peculiar character of the spring, a blight came over 
the fruit and some other much hardier trees, during the summer. 
Many fruit trees leaved out and bloomed in the spring as usual, but 
soon the blossoms fell off, the trees lost their thrift, then the leaves 
fell and finally the tree died. Some trees which had been set for 
years and had grown to good size, died. The blight seemed to 
extend to some indiginous trees as well. However, this blight fortu- 
nately prevailed only in certain localities, while in others it was not 
observed. 

Although the spring of the year was unpleasant, the summer 
made amends for it. There were no hail storms of importance — no 
great storms of wind or rain, but little sultry, or very hot weather, 
and general good health prevailed throughout the county. In fact 
the summer was more evenly tempered than usual, and taken alto- 
gether, was one of the most agreeable within the recollection of the 
writer. 

THE F. C. S. S. A. 

The third annual meeting of the Sunday School Association 
was held at Wells, on the twenty-ninth and thirtieth days of May. 
The attendance was good and the interest manifested commendable. 
A committee reported thirty-one Sabbath schools in the county. 
The following resolution was adopted: 

"■Resolved, That the salvation of the soul and the development of the Chris- 
tian character, are of the first importance, and as the popular habits of intem- 
perance and profanity, and the use of tobacco, are hiuderances thereto, we 
earnestly warn and carefully guard the youth against them." 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 365 

C. B. Miner, of Verona, was elected president; O. A. Albee, of 
Winnebago City and Chas. H. Dearborn, of Blue Earth City, vice 
presidents; Chas. H. Patten, of Winnebago City, secretai-y, and 
Thomas Blair, of Delavan, treasurer, for the ensuing year. 

MORE RAILROAD TALK. 

If any curious person should ever take it into his head to look 
up the history of the struggle of the people of this county to secure 
the building of railroads, how long and persistently they labored, 
and what sacrifices they made, to secure the building of the great 
lines of road, the benefits of which now all enjoy, here is an item 
which he should want to see. In the early part of the year, the 
project was again revived of building a road from Mankato to Wells, 
heretofore spoken of, and in connection therewith, E. P. Drake, 
president of the St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad Company, again 
proposed to construct a branch line from that point, at or near Good 
Thunder Ford, on the line of the above mentioned road, via Winne- 
bago City and Blue Earth City, to the Iowa State line. The condition, 
was the voting of aid in town bonds by the several townships along 
the line of road, to the aggregate amount of $150,000; $50,000 of 
which was to be provided by towns in Blue Earth county, and 
|!100,000 by the towns in Faribault county. The bonds were voted 
during the spring and summer. The company was to have until 
December 1st, 1874, to complete the roads, and this, for the time 
being, was the great topic of interest. Meetings were held in most 
of the towns along the Blue Earth line, at which Mr. Drake appeared 
personally, and stated his views and intentions. Circulars setting 
forth the project and the advantages of the road, were printed in 
the English and Norwegian languages, and widely distributed. 
About the first of the following September, both companies had 
made their arrangements to build, and work had actually commenced 
on the Mankato and Wells line, but all was soon abandoned, and the 
building of the roads fell through for this year, owing to financial 
difficulties. 

"Hope is a curtail dog in some affairs." — Shakespeare. 

THE GRASSHOPPER INVASION. 

One of the greatest calamities which ever befell this region of 
country, was the grasshopper plague, which commenced in this year 
and extended through a period of four, and in some localities, five 
years. A few introductory remarks only, will be made relative to 
the subject in the history of this year, but it will be more fully 
treated hereafter. 

During the month of June, vast swarms of these insects appeared 
suddenly in northwestern Iowa, and in a few days after, in south- 



366 HISTORY OF 

western Minnesota. Their ravages were very serious. The peo- 
ple were taken by surprise, they could not comprehend this terrible 
destruction of the ir crops, they knew not what to do and were 
utterly powerless. The pests eat up the gardens and stripped the 
grain fields in many localities.entircly destroying the crops. In some 
instances, within the area attacked, the injury done was but par- 
tial to the grain fields, but their capacity to do irreparable and wide- 
spread damage was plainly evident. It was on the last day of June 
that they made their appearance at Blue Earth City, and along the 
line of the Blue Earth river. Tliey had, however, been in the south- 
western towns of the county for some days previous. They came 
in innumerable hosts, as it is written of the locusts of Egypt. 

On looking toward the sun, they could be seen, though flying 
quite high, passing northward in countless myriads. Those that lit 
down along the Blue Earth river, appeared to be but small parties 
or detachments, dropped out of the main army. After remaining in 
some localities a few days, in others some weeks, eating up the vege 
tation and depositing their eggs, they would suddenly disappejir. 
Their ravages were much more serious this year, in the counties 
lying west of this, than here, resulting in much loss and destruction. 

If it is permissable in so grave a matter as this, should we be 
asked what became of much of our grain crops for a number of 
years, we may reply, as did the Kansas school boy, in the following 
brief catechism : 

Kansas teacher— "Where does all of our grain products go to?"' Buy— "It 
goes into the hopper." "Hopper? ^Yhat hopper?" "Grasshopperl" Triumphantly 
shouted the lad. 

PATRIOTIC PYROTECHNICS. 

The birthday of the nation was celebrated at a number of places 
in the county. At Blue Earth City, Rev. J. W. Powell delivered the 
oration and .1. A. Kiester read the Declaration. At Winnebago City 
Gen. Kellogg, of La Crosse, addressed the people, and Andrew C. 
Dunn was the reader of the Declaration. 

On these days of rejoicing in our civil and religious liberties, it 
is well to remember the innumerable and intolerable evils, which, 
through many centuries, resulted from the union of church and slate 
and the exercise of ecclesiastical power over the civil authority. 
The record is among the blackest and bloodiest of the human race. 
In our favored land, these two great powers are separate. One can- 
not exercise authority over, or interfere with the other. And here 
is what a great religious body, great in numbers and influence, both 
in Europe and America, wisely embraces among its fundamental 
teachings on this subject: 

"Some have iiiipropiTly mingled together, civil and ecclesiastical power. 
From this heterogeQeouscominixturo,e.\leDsive wars, rebellions and insurrections 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 367 

have been produced." * * * "Inasmuch * as the power of the 
church * * * confers eternal gifts * * * it cannot by 
any means Interfere with civil polity and government. For the latter relates 
to matters entirely different from the gospel, and protects with its power, not 
the souls of men, but their bodies and possessions against external violence by 
the sword and bodily penalties. Therefore, the two governments, the civil 
and ecclesiastical ought not to be mingled and confounded. For the eccle- 
siastical power has its command to preach the gospel and to administer the 
sacraments, and it ought not to interfere with a foreign office, it ought not to 
dethrone or make Kings, It ought not to abolish or disturb civil laws and 
obedience to government. It ought not to make and appoint laws for the civil 
power concerning political matters." 

THE HARVEST AND CROPS. 

The harvest of the earlier varieties of wheat, commenced in the 
last week in July. The harvest weather of the year, was all it could 
be desired. No heavy rains, or winds, interfered with the work. 
Owing to the fact that most of our farmers had several varieties of 
wheat, some of which were earlier than others, the work was more 
distributed than usual, and much less hired help was required. In 
fact the grain of this year was gotten up much more cheaply than 
in former years. The wheat crop of the year was not a good 
one. In the east half of the county, the crop was fair, but in the 
west half not more than half a crop, many farmers not getting 
over five or six bushels per acre. The grasshoppers did much 
injury in certain localities, and even on fields where it was thought 
they had done but little, if any harm, the damage proved to be a 
considerable percentage, when the grain came from the spout of 
the threshing machine. The Red Osaka, in some localities, was 
struck with rust. Oats averaged from thirty to forty bushels per 
acre, there being more fields of the former than of the latter amount. 
The corn crop was only nominal, but little having been planted, 
yet there were some good fields which yielded well, one especially 
of ninety acres in the northwestern part of the county. It brought 
from fifty to seventy five cents per bushel in the fall. Barley in the 
southwestern portion of the county was eaten up by the grasshop- 
pers and in other parts of the county was not a great crop. During 
the succeeding winter barley brought over one dollar per bushel. 
Potatoes did not yield well, generally, and there was a consequent 
scarcity and high prices, ranging from sixty to seventy- five cents 
per bushel in November, and running as high as from eighty cents 
to one dollar in the winter. 

This was not a prosperous year for our farmers, and while the 
aggregate productions of the year show well, as reported by the 
commissioner of statistics, the results may be accredited, partially, 
to increased acreage of lands tilled, and partially to imperfect and 
overestimated returns, and partially to the fact that these statistics 
are not very reliable in any event. 



368 HISTORY OF 



THE PATKONS OF HUSUAKDHY. 



The most important public movement of this year, was the 
or£?anization in this county, of many subordinate granges of the 
Order of Patrons of Husbandry — a secret order, instituted to further 
and protect the interests of farmers, as a class. The institution 
spread over all the states and territories of the Union, and in less 
than three years could boast of some twenty-throe thousand gran- 
ges and a million and a half of members. No great popular move- 
ment of the people, at any time in history, equalled this. 

After some four or five years, the order, owing to various causes, 
which it is not necessary to specify here, began to decline, and at 
the end of eight or ten years ceased to exist in many sections of 
the country; but in various localities in many of the states it is still 
flourishing, and as it was not the fact that the order fell into decay 
because some such organization was not greatly needed — for it was 
required and will ahvaj's be needed, and it was one of the noblest, 
most beneficent of institutions, the prediction may be ventured, that 
the day will come when it will be revived and re-organized over the 
whole land, but perhaps, in some slightly different form. 

MEMORABILIA. 

Here are some important events which occurred during this 
year, on the world's great stage of action, outside of our county, and 
which formed topics of interest and discussion everywhere. 

January 9th. The Emperor Napoleon IH, died. 

March 3d. The "Salary Grab" act passed by Congress. 

March 19th. San Salvador, Central America, destroyed by an 
earthquake — property lost, 820,000.000. Lives lost, 500. 

April 1st. Steamer Atlantic wrecked, 535 lives lost. 

July 4th. Great storm, destructive to crops, in Ohio, Indiana, 
Wisconsin and Missouri. 

August 24th. Terrible storm on the coast of British America 
and coast of Mexico. 100 vessels destroyed in and near the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, and 176 sailing vessels and 12 steamers lost in the 
Gulf of Mexico. 

December 14th. Louis Agassiz died. 

EASTON. 

About the middle of September the town-site of "Easton" was 
surveyed and building commenced. This new village — the sixth 
in the county according to age, was located upon section thirty-six 
(36), in the town of Lura, on the line of the Southern Minnesota 
railroad. The early history of this village, will be given further 
along in this work. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 369 

JACK FROST. 

The first severe frost of the autumn happened on the nights of 

the 17th and 18th of September, and the nights thereafter became 

quite cold. ' A comforter or two had to be added to the bed clothing. 

These frosts killed the grass and other vegetation; silenced, 

finally, for this year the song of the mosquito, and hinted to us. that 

the harvest was passed, the summer ended and winter approaching. 

"Summer is over and the leaves are falling, 

Gold, flre-enameled in the glowing sun; 

The fresh, green sod, in dead, dry leaves is hidden; 

They rustle very sadly in the breeze; 
Some breathing from the past comes, all unbidden. 

And in my heart stir withered memories." — Anon. 

THE WELLS ATLAS. 

This paper, which had suspended in January of this year, was 
again re-issued, appearing September 17th. It was a six column 
sheet and neatly printed, and in the curious phi-aseology of the times, 
was described as made up of "liomespun outsides" and "patent in- 
ternals." R. Calvert appeared as editor and manager. 

OCTOBER- .^N EVENTFUL MONTH. 

THE FAIR. 

The fifteenth annual fair of the Agricultural Society was held 
at Winnebago City, on the second and third days of October. The 
first day the weather was so bad that nothing was done. The second 
day was not much better. The exhibition was rather poor and the 
attendance not great. The ofiBcers of the society had made a very 
commendable effort to have a good fair, but the unfavorable weather 
was something no effort or prudence of theirs could overcome. 

PRAIRIE FIRES. 

About the sixth day of the month, great jirairie fires started up 
in the southern towns of the county and raged fearfully for some 
days. Great quantities of grain and hay in the stack were burned 
up. Several farmers lost all their grain and hay. A large number 
of stables, and several dwellings were burned. Many fruit trees 
were injured, or totally killed, and a number of fine groves of forest 
trees were destroyed. The fires broke out in a number of localities 
and ran over wide area.s. The principal damage was done in the 
towns of Pilot Grove, Elmore, Rome, Seely, Poster, Delavan and 
Verona, and many of the residents of those towns will sadly re- 
member the event. 

It can hardly be doubted that many of our prairies would long 
since have been covered with a growth of timber, had it not been 



370 HJSTOltV OF 

for the annual prairie fires, which have heretofore swept over them 
from time immemorial. Timber seeds seem to be in the ground 
everj'whero, and many spots of ground, free from fires for a few 
years, are soon covered by groves of young popples, oaks, and other 
wood growths. Doubtless the protection against fire, furnished by 
our streams, has given us our timber, and the very tortuous and 
winding course of our creeks and rivers, adding length to the 
streams, and furnishing innumerable protected promontories, nooks 
and corners, has greatly added to the quantity of the timber. 

These prairie fires are usually the result of accident, or care- 
lessness, but sometimes of design. Much of the damage which has 
resulted from them is, also, the result of negligence and careless- 
ness in not taking timely precautions against them. The laws for 
many years have provided severe penalties against the negligent, 
or malicious setting fire to the prairies, by which damage is done, 
and these laws have been frequently enforced in this county. The 
firing of the prairies in former times was often the work of the 
Indians, who had some, to us, unknown purpose in it. 

There are few grander sights than that of a prairie fire at night, 
on the boundless prairies of the west, and, as seen above, thej' are 
often fearfully destructive, as well as grand, but it is a sight which, 
owing to the rapid settlement of the county, will soon be a thing 
of the past, and one with which we can well dispense. 

A POLITICAL IMBROGLIO. 

Let us now turn to a brief account of the political contest of 
this year. On several of the ofiices the fight was an exciting one. 
A governor of the State and several other state officers were to be 
elected, and several proposed amendments to the constitution of the 
State were submitted to the people, for approval or rejection, all of 
which added to the interest of the election. 

On the fourth day of October, a county council of the Patrons 
of Husbandry was held at Blue Earth City, at which the following 
nominations were made for legislative and county offices: 

For Representatives — Allen Shultis and T. G. Pond. 

For Countj'^ Treasurer — James Grays. 

For County Attorney — S. J. Abbott. 

For Sheriff — Charles Stockman. 

For Probate Judge — John Wilmert. 

No nomination for the office of state senator was made, but a 
committee consisting of one from each Grange in the county was 
cho.sen, who were to assemble at Blue Earth City on the eleventh of 
Octobei", the time of meeting of the Republican County Convention, 
and ratify the nomination for senator, if satisfactory, if not, to make 
a nomination. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 371 

The Republican Couuty Convention was held at Blue Earth City 
October 11th. Every town in the county was fully represented and 
great interest was felt in the result. For months preceding the 
convention, two candidates for the office of state senator and their 
respective friends, had labored with might and main to secure the 
convention, and consequently the nomination. There were several 
candidates already in the field for the several offices of treasurer, 
county attorney and sheriff. But the greatest interest centered in 
the offices of senator and treasurer. 

The convention organized by choosing Allen Shultis, of 
Elmore, chairman, and A. A. Williams, of Verona, secretary. The 
usual committees were then appointed. The committee on creden- 
tials reported two delegations from the town of Emerald, one in favor 
of G. W. Whallon for senator, and the other for S. P. Child, when 
on the question being submitted to the convention on receiving 
one-half of each delegation, it was, after much heated discussion, so 
determined. Mr. Child, who was a member of the convention, 
and all his friends in the convention at once withdrew. The re- 
mainder of the convention, composed of several more than one-half 
of those elected, then proceeded, hurriedly and amid much confu- 
sion, to make the nominations, which were as follows: 

G. W. Whallon, for Senator. 

L. C. Harrington and J. P. West, for Representatives, 

J. A. Kiester, for Judge of Probate. 

E. A. Hotchkiss, for Treasurer. 

J. P. Burk, for Sheriff. 

S. J. Abbott, for County Attorney. 

A. J. Rose, for Coroner. 

After the convention adjourned, the committee of the county 
council, above mentioned, assembled, and after admitting several 
more members to the committee, proceeded to vote on the nomi- 
nation for senator; J. A. Latimer and G. W. Whallon being the can- 
didates. The vote was a tie and no nomination was made. Allen 
Shultis withdrew as a candidate for representative, and C. S. Dun- 
bar, of Poster, was substituted. 

Next came the Democratic and Liberal Republican convention, 
which was held at Blue Earth City on the seventeenth day of Oc- 
tober. 

D. P. Wasgatt, of Winnebago City, was elected chairman, and 
Geo. Scheid, of Barber, secretary. The following were the nomi- 
nations made: 

For Senator — H. P. Constans. 

For Representatives— T. G. Pond, (indorsed) and Thomas Blair. 

For Judge of Probate — J. A. Kiester, (indorsed). 

For Treasurer — James Grays, (indorsed). 



372 HlSTOItY OF 

For Sheriff— A. B. Davis. 
For Couuty Attorney — F. E. Watson. 
For Coroner — A. J. Rose, (indorsed). 

Much dissatisfaction was expressed with the political situation 
on all sides, and with the action of the conventions. 

In a few days after the conventions, R. B. Johnson was an- 
nounced as an independent candidate for treasurer; J. H. Sprout, 
for county attorney, and S. P. Child, for sepator. Electioneering 
"ran high" and a number of the candidates put forth their best 
efforts. Mr. Wilmert withdrew as a candidate for judge of probate, 
not wanting the office. 

The election was held on the fourth day of November, and the 
day was clear and mild. For a week or more before election, the 
canvassing and electioneering was done on runners, and the roads 
were, by some of the candidates, pretty well worn. After all was 
said and done, the polls closed, the vote counted, and the following 
was the result. The people had spoken. 
For Governor: 

Davis 1,291 

Barton 587 

For Senator: 

Chilfl 815 

Whallfin 751 

Cnnstans .■i2.3 

For Representatives: 

West 895 

Harrington 599 

Pond 917 

Blair 822 

Dunbar 510 

For Treasurer: 

Johnson 1,226 

Grays •■155 

Ilotchkiss 299 

For Sheriff: 

Stockman 701 

Davis 803 

Burk 389 

For Probate Judge: 

Kiester 1,860 

P^or County Attorney: 

Sprout 1 ,01 2 

Abbott 779 

For Coroner: 

Rose 1,8,56 

Robert Andrews, Count.v Commissioner. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 373 

"THE SNOW, THE BEAUTIFUL SNOW!" 

The first snow of the season fell on the night of the twenty- 
fourth and the forenoon of the twenty-fifth of October. There was 
probably a depth of four inches. This snow storm had a very dis- 
couraging effect upon the people. The spring had been late, the 
grasshoppers had done much damage in certain localities, the crops 
were light, and the prices low, people were much in debt, and but 
little plowing had yet been done, and now, the question was asked 
by many anxious people, "can it be true that winter has already 
come upon us?" However, it did not prove so bad as was appre- 
hended, and considerable plowing and other fall work was done 
after this snow. 

The record of this unhappy year may be closed with a few gen- 
eral remarks, illustrative of the condition of the times. 

There have been but few years in the history of the county, or 
of the nation, that were "harder," as the expression is, or more dis- 
couraging generally, during the summer and autumn. 

Locally, we suffered from short crops and low prices of wheat, 
the staple and money crop of the county. All through September, 
October and November, the price of wheat was very low. Money 
was extremely scax'ce and rates of interest very high. Everybody 
was more or less in debt, and everyone to whom money was due, was 
urgent, persistent for his pay, and the county newspapers were 
filled with notices of mortgage foreclosures and sales of land under 
execution. During this and several subsequent years, many homes 
and farms passed away forever from the owners, for a very small 
proportion of their real value. And in this sad summary of local 
afflictions we must not forget what has been said as to the damages 
done by grasshoppers and prairie fires in certain portions of the 
county. 

In the fall there came upon the nation a great money panic— a 
financial crash. The great failure of the banking house of Jay Cook 
& Company, of Philadelphia, Pa., led off in this dance of financial 
dishonor and death. Many banks suspended; thousands of indi- 
viduals of supposed great wealth, great moneyed corporations of all 
kinds, went down in bankruptcy. Manufactories and mines ceased 
to be operated. Great public enterprises were brought to a sudden 
close. The building of railroads ceased. The number of defaulters 
in public office, was legion. The army of the unemployed swelled 
from hundreds to thousands, and hundreds of thousands, and great 
distress prevailed throughout the country, while suspicion and dis- 
trust existed everywhere. 

This year saw the beginning of one of the greatest financial re- 
vulsions in the history of the nation, and one which continued its 



374 nrSTOIlY OF 

work of ruin and distress for a number of years, as will be seen 
hereafter. This was the era when the usurer, the land shark, the 
scalping attorney and tlie collecting officers nourished in all the land. 

And what were the general causes which led to all these tre- 
mendous evil results? History says that the success of the first 
Pacific railroad led to tho building of a second — the Northern Paci- 
fic — and also to the building of thousands of miles of other railroads, 
in the west, which were really not needed, and that multitudes of 
people, the rich and the poor, put their capital and savings into these 
projects for speculative purposes. They jiroved delusive. Other 
financial schemes had also started up which absorbed millions of 
dollars, which failed to make any return. Other causes were ex- 
travagant living and building, everywhere, the accumulation of 
great individual and corporate indebtedness, and wild speculation in 
all kinds of properly that proved worthless. It is claimed, also, by 
a class of writers on finance and the currency that there was still an- 
other and leading cause of the public calamities of this and many 
subsequent years. 

In February, of this year, through, it was said, the corrupting 
influences exercised by English capitalists, an act was passed by 
congress, in relation to the mint and coinage, which prohibited the 
coinage of the former kind of silver dollars, and which, in effect, it 
was alleged, degraded and demonetized silver. By this act silver 
ceased to be a legal tender except in sums not exceeding five dollars 
in any single transaction. 

A great outcry ai'ose at the time, which was repeated at times, 
for many years afterwards, that by this act the debtor class had 

been greatly wronged, and the creditor greatly benefited. 

ft 
"Money, the life blood of the nation, 

Corrupts and stagnates in the veins. 

Unless a proper circulation 

Its motion and its heat maintains."— Sl(•^/^ 

Prom all this it may be correctly inferred, that there is but 
little in improvement and general progress in this county, in 1873, 
of which to boast. 

It was everywhere throughout the whole country very appar- 
ent that reform and retrenchment, better systems of farming, 
stricter business principles, economy, and a general settling up and 
starting anew, were imperatively demanded. 



FAItlBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 375 



CHAPTER XX. 

A. D. 1874. 

Never perhaps in the history of the northwest; was the new 
year ushered in by a more beautiful day, than the first day of Jan- 
uary. 1874. It much exceeded, in this respect, the first day of 
January, 1873. The skies were cloudless, the sun shown all day 
long with peculiar radiance, the winds were hushed, and the atmos- 
phere was soft, balmy and spring like. Fires died out, doors were 
thrown wide open, and the old and the young came forth to enjoy 
the open air and genial skies. 

Let us now see what occurred in this county, worthy of note, 
during this year. 

The winter of 1873-4 was quite a mild one, there being no 
severe storms and no great depth of snow. On the nights of the 
twenty-first and twenty-second of February, however, a quantity of 
snow fell, which on Monday, was blown into drifts, causing a sus- 
pension of business for the day, and also on the sixth and seventh of 
March, the snow fall was considerable. 

THE COUNTY FATHERS. 

The commissioners assembled January 6th. W. W. Potter, of 
Verona, was elected chairman for the year. Another session of 
the board was held, commencing March 4th. At this latter session 
a contract was entered into with E. Raymond & Son, residing near 
Blue Earth City, to keep the county poor. 

The county not having yet erected the necessary buildings on 
the poor farm, the poor who were supported by the county were 
lodged at various places. This system was expensive and led to the 
l^ractice of more or less fraud on the public. According to the 
agreement entered into at this time, Messrs. Raymond & Son con 
tracted to board and lodge and take the general care of the poor for 
two dollars each, per week, the county to furnish clothing and med- 
ical attendance. At this time some sixteen persons were being 
supported by the county. 

When the arrangements had all been made, notice was given to 
these persons to repair to Mr. Raymond's, where comfortable quar- 
ters had been prepared for them. But lo! only three obeyed the 
order! The others refused, on the ground that they were not going 



37G IJfSTO/.'Y or 

to the poor house! not they, they could do better than that— they 
had not become so poor as that yet! Not quitel So long as many 
of them could live comfortably among friends and relatives, and the 
county pay their expenses, it was all right, but this thing of going 
to the poor house, they could not stand. And we are compelled to 
honor the spirit they manifested in keeping out of the poor house, 
so long as possible, still they seemed to make a great distinction 
where there was not much difference. The county, at all events, 
was by this action relieved of their support. 

The board held three other sessions during the year, namely, 
on .Tune 23rd, September 15th and October 8th, but no business was 
transacted at either session worthy of special mention. 

■THE HIGH COURT." 

The district court held its regular general term, commencing on 
the sixth day of January'. Hon. P. H. Waite, presiding. There 
were twelve criminal and fiftj'one civil cases stated on the calendar, 
one of the largest ever had in the county. 

The following instance is not the only one in which jurors have 
been greatly puzzled . 

"Gen. R. W. .Judson tells a good story. It was of a case in the United 
States district court at Albany many years ajfo. A patent right suit was on 
before Judge Nelson. William H. Seward was counsel on one side. In sum- 
ming up he occupied a whole day. Peter Cagger came in while he was talking, 
and after listening an hour turned to a learned lawyer and inquired: 'What 
the deuce is Seward talking about?' The counsel on the other side made a long 
speech, and the judge chargi'd. After the jury had been out about two hours 
they camo into the court, and the foreman said: "Your honor, the jury w<iuld 
like to ask a (|uestion?' Judge: 'You can proceed.' Foreman; 'Well, your 
honor, we would like to know what this suit is about?' " 

THE FARMERS' SOCIETY. 

The annual meeting of the Agricultural Society, for the election 
of officers, was held at Blue Earth City on the sixth day of January. 
F. A. Squires, was chosen president; P. W. Temple, secretary; Chas. 
Stockman, treasurer. 

This was one of the most spirited contests for the offices yet 
known in the history of the society. It was made a question of 
localities, between Winnebago City and Blue Earth City. 

Another meeting was held May 16th at Blue Earth City, at 
which the question of locating the fair grounds and headquarters of 
the society again came up, but the meeting was adjourned, without 
definite action on the question, to the second day of June. At the 
latter meeting, the following proposition on behalf of the citizens of 
Blue Earth City was submitted: 

"That in consideration of, and on condition that the Faribault County Ag- 
ricultural Society shall hold the annual fair of said society at Blue Earth City, 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. Zll 

the citizens of Blue Earth City hereby agree to furnish suitable fair grounds, 
buildings, track, stalls and pens, free of charge, to the society for the purpose 
of holding such fairs for the period of ten years from date hereof. 

•'Provided, that for the period of ten years from this date, all moneys or 
property now, or hereafter, belonging to said society, after paying the necessary 
expenses thereof, shall be applied to making improvements and repairs on said 
fair grounds and buildings." 

This was the only proposition presented, and was accepted by 
the society, by the unanimous vote of those present. 

A tract of twenty-five acres of ground, situated a half mile north 
of Blue Earth City, was hired for ten years, an excellent race track 
was prepared, a capacious building erected on the grounds, and 
other conveniences provided, mainly through the contributions of 
the people of Blue Earth City, and subsequently the grounds were 
mainly enclosed with a high fence. 

The annual fair was held on the first, second and third days of 
Octobei-. The weather was fine, the attendance large, there being 
fully twelve hundred people present on the second day, and the dis- 
play of stock, farm products and articles of domestic manufacture, 
the best that had been seen for a number of years. But the location 
of the fair gi'ounds did not give satisfaction in several localities, and 
considerable fault was found for some years, with this action of the 
society. 

THE SOLONS. 

The legislation of this year, relating in any special manner to 
this county, was: 

1st. A memorial to Congress to establish a post route from 
Banks, in Faribault county, Minn., by way of Coon Grove and Ben- 
son's Grove, to Forest City, in the State of Iowa. 

2d. To incorporate the village of Winnebago City. 

3d. To authorize the village council of Wells, to issue bonds 
for certain purposes. 

4th. To authorize the supervisors of the town of Clark, to issue 
bonds. 

5th. To appropriate money to build a bridge across Brush 
Creek. 

6th. To incorporate the village of Easton. 

7th. To authorize the Judge of Probate, of Faribault county, to 
commit William Rose (non compis mentis), to the hospital for 
insane. 

Our representatives in the legislature for the year, were S. P. 
Child, in the Senate, and T. G. Pond and J. P. West, in the House. 

Bailey Madison, of this county, was again sergeant-atarms in 
the House, Charles A. Rose, fireman for the Senate, and Master E. 
J. Vial, senate messenger. 



378 HISTOHY OF 

THE "PRESS." 

On the sixteenth clay of February, the Winnebago City Pre's 
changed proprietors. Mr. J. L Christie became the proprietor and 
editor. The retiring owner, Mr. Huntington, says: "We have sold 
the Press office to Mr. J. L. Christie, for the reason that we are 
not a printer and thei'e is no particular profit in the investment. 
We will confess that we rather like the business." 

Mr. Christie introduces himself in the following words: "After 
an absence of seven years, we again find ourselves seated in the edi- 
torial chair and making our best bow to our many old friends and 
patrons of Faribault county, through the columns of the Press." 

A FINE SPRING. 

The spring opened about the thirteenth of March. The wind 
changed on that day into the south, and on the next day we had the 
first rain of the season. It was remarked that the crows arrived 
about this date in great, in fact, in unusual numbers, and the wild 
geese and ducks, doubtless, were anxiously expected. 

As seeding time approached, serious apprehensions were enter- 
tained by many in the west half of the county, that the grasshopper 
eggs, innumerable quantities of which had been deposited in the 
ground the preceding year, would hatch, and produce that pest in 
such vast numbers as to again eat up the crops. The eggs were 
mainly deposited in the west tier of towns, and the west half of 
the next tier east, in this county. The subject was one of serious 
consideration, indeed very perplexing, and many a head turned 
restlessly upon its pillow at night, with evil forebodings. No one 
could give any reliable information, or advice, as to what was 
best to-be done. Opinions were various and the reasons for them 
curious. No one had had any experience, and printed information 
was not at hand. The majority of the people, therefore, concluded 
to risk their seed, and did so. 

There was but little wheat sown prior to the first day of April. 
The weather during Mai-ch was pleasant. Nearly all the snow went 
off and the roads became quite dry, but the frost came out of the 
ground so slowly as to delay the seeding. Indeed the spring was 
remarkable in the fact that in the earlier part of it, there was no 
rain, and the days were clear and bright, but the nights were quite 
cold. The wells, generally, "dried up." and many of thom had to 
be sunk deeper. The crops were never, probably, put in more suc- 
cessfully than in this year, though sometimes earlier. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 379 

MELANGE. 

In March the first religious newspaper published in this county 
appeared. It was named the Church Messenger, and its motto was 
"Evangelic truth and apostolic order." The prospectus says "this 
paper will be published monthly, at Wells, Minnesota, under the 
auspices of the church of the Nativity (Episcopal). The terms of 
subscription are twenty-five cents per annum, payable in advance." 
This paper was a two column eight page quarto, neatly printed and 
full of original and well selected matter relating to religious sub- 
jects. It was a sort of little gem, in the newspaper line. Rev. S. S. 
Burleson was the editor and proprietor. The paper did not long 
survive, however. 

On the twentieth day of March, the Blue Earth Valley "Blooded 
Stock" Association was organized at Winnebago City, of which H. 
W. Holley was elected president, H. M. Huntington, secretary, P. 
W. Temple, treasurer, and F. F. Harlow, corresponding secretary. 
The object of this association was to introduce into Southwestern 
Minnesota the best blooded cattle which could anywhere be ob- 
tained. A number of the members residing in this county, secured 
quite a number of very fine animals of the best breeds. 

The object of the association was certainlj' very commendable, 
and one of the first importance to the people of the county. 

The incident is mentioned here, as indicating the progress of 
certain material interests of the county. 

On the twenty- fourth day of March, a great Teachers" Training 
School commenced at Wells, and continued in session until April 
17th. This was the most important school of the kind yet held in 
this section of country. There were ninety-one ^lersons in attend- 
ance from this county, four from Blue Earth county, and forty- six 
from Freeborn county. 

The instructors were. State Superintendent Wilson, Prof. H. J. 
Buckham, principal of the Normal school at Buffalo, N. Y.,J. P. 
Bird, James N. Lee, Sam'l Rutledge, and County Superintendent 
Richards, of this county. The school was claimed to be a great 
success, and it was certainly an important event in the history of 
the educational interests of the county. 

THE POST. 

On the second day of May, with the issue of that date, Mr. W. 
W. Williams retired from the editorial chair of the Bine Earth City 
Post, with these brief words: "With this issue of the Post its control 
passes into the hands of C. H. Slocum, Esq., late of the St. Charles 
Herald, who becomes its proprietor by purchase. The undersigned 
would be ungrateful indeed, were he to allow this opportunity 
to pass without returning to the people of Blue Earth City his 



380 JIISToiiV OF 

warmest thanks, for their uuvaryiug kindness to him, and their 
generous support of the Post, from the date of its first issue (May, 
JbtJ'J) down to the present time, and that they may prosper in all 
good things, will always be one of his fondest hopes.— W. W. Wil- 
liams." 

On assuming the management of the Post, Mr. Slocum says in 
the issue of May 9th: "'The present manager of the Post is suffi- 
ciently well known in this county, and throughout the State, to 
render unnecessary a formal introduction. * * * It (the Post) will 
continue to be republican in principle, reserving the right to criti- 
cise fully all acts that ai'e essentially wrong, and will not tie itself 
to the fortunes of any local faction, or clique. Further than this, 
let each issue speak for itself." 

NORWEGIAN N.\TIONAL INDEPEMDENCE DAY, MAY 17tH. 

One of the great holidays of Norway, observed by the Nor- 
wegian people, not only in their native land, but also in this, the 
adopted country of many thousands of them, is the seventeenth day 
of May. This is Norway's independence day as the Fourth of July is 
ours. This great holiday is, therefore. one of interest to a large por- 
tion of our people, and it has been celebrated in this county a 
number of times. What does it mean, and how is the anniversary 
observed? 

By the peace of Kiel. January 14th, 1814, made by certain of the 
great powers of Europe. Norway, in the general parcelling out, was 
given to Sweden, whose reigning monarch was then Charles XIIl, 
a very able ruler. But this arrangement was wholly arbitrary. 
The Norwegian people had not been consulted about it, nor given 
their consent to it. 

The act was highly otfensive to Ihem, as it would be to any 
people, that possessed any national spirit, or self-respect. It 
touched their national and patriotic feelings, which are exceedingly 
strong, very deeply, and they indignantly repudiated it. . Action 
was at once taken by the great leaders of the people. 

Christian, Crown Prince of Denmark, who had been governor 
of Norway, called together a national council, which met in May at 
Eidsvold. and he accepted the crown of Norway, with a written con- 
siiiution, made on the spot, and which was adopted May 17lh, 1814. 
This constitution declared Norway independent. and established a lim- 
ited monarchy, in which the powers of government and the ancient 
rights of the people w'oro well guarded. Christian, however, could 
not Laaintain himself, as the Swedish king was sustained by all the 
powers of Europe. 

Finally, terms were made for a better regulated union of the 
two countries, and the constitution above referred to. with slight 



FAIUHAVLT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 381 

changes, Avas accepted by the Swedish king, November 4th, 1814. 
This constitution declares, and it was required to be acknowledged 
that Norway is "free, independent, indivisable and inalienable." 
Norway preserves her own flag, her currency, her accounts, her 
bank and her official language. 

And while the king of Sweden is king of Norway, yet Norway 
has its own governing body called the Storthing, which is the legis- 
lature, or parliament of the nation, and the king of Sweden cannot be 
king of Noi'way, until he has been crowned at the ancient city of 
Trondhjam, in Norway, as King of Norway. 

No one, at least, no American, can but admire the indomitable 
resolution and courage with which the Norwegian people main- 
tained tlieir nationality and the rights of the people, in the face of 
the untoward conditions and vast combinations against them. 

There is mucli in this histoiy and tlieir declaration of na- 
tional rights and their maintenance, which reminds us of the era of 
our own independence and our establishment as a nation, and which 
awakens the old "Spirit of 76," in our own hearts and prompts us 
to take part in these celebrations, with our drums and flags and 
thundering cannon and general rejoicing, and wlien they raise their 
voices in singing enthusiastically the inspiring national song of old 
Norway "Ja vi elsker dette Landet," the echoes answer back "Hail 
Columbia! happy land." 

And there is move propriety in this, tlian may at first sight ap- 
pear. It is altogether probable, if not certain, tliat we originally 
derived our notions of personal liberty of action, of opinion and of 
speech, and our principles of civil and religious liberty, from the 
old nations of Norseland, rather than from what may be termed the 
deductions of political philosophy, or the examples and constitu- 
tions of the ancient civilized nations of the south of Europe. Be- 
sides the day is not far distant when Norway itself will be an inde- 
pendent republic like our own. At all events, the American is con- 
stitutionally inclined, and exercises the right to hurrah for any people 
who have made a stand for liberty and nationality. 

Such, briefly stated, is the great event in the history of Nor- 
way, usually celebrated by our Norwegian citizens, and certainly 
v/ith great propriety. 

As to the manner of the observance of the day, it is sufficient to 
say, that it is very much in the same style in whicli we celebrate 
the Fourth of July. The programme of exercises usually embraces, 
in their order, music, a speech of welcome by the president of the 
day, national songs and a formal oration, the subject matter of 
which relates to the event celebrated. In these proceedings, this, 
the country of adoption, is never forgotten. The flags of both 
countries are displayed. Our Declaration of Independence, as Avell 



382 IIlSToay OF 

as thai of Norway, is usually read, and an address relating to the 
United States is generally included in the programme. 

So far as the writer has been able to learn, on diligent investi- 
gation, the first observance of the day in this county, occurred 
in 1873. 

While it may be said that, no well founded objection can be 
made to the custom of our Norwegian citizens in celebrating Nor- 
wegian Independence Day, for it is, after all, but a recognition an4 
honoring of what are, essentially, American political principles, 
yet there has been considerable said and written, of late years, 
questioning the wisdom, from an American standpoint, of our for- 
eign born citizens, of any nationality, keeping up their political 
views, customs and usages of their native countries, thus perpet- 
uating, here, where all should be one and American, the spirit, the 
national characteristics and methods of separate and distinct nation- 
alities, and thus weakening their loyalty to American ways and 
institutions, and causing divisions and contentions and rivalries in 
social life, educational methods and political ideas and ambitions. 

And it must be admitted that in many localities, the matter of 
nationality and religion have been carried to extremes, in relation 
to education and politics, especially. 

But that they will have any very long continued ill effects, 
considering the fact that the children of our naturalized citizens, 
born under American skies, and whatever else may be done, largely 
educated in their advance to maturity, under American institutions, 
and amidst American associations and influences, may well be doubted. 
It is no discredit to any man that he was born under foreign 
skies, for he could not control the matter, and all Americans, or 
their ancestors, (except Indians), but a few generations back, were 
born in foreign climes. 

But it is believed to be a correct proposition, that our people 
born in alien lands, whatever kindly memories they may choose to 
cherish of the old home, life and friendly associations of their 
native land, should, when they become American citizens, make all 
reasonable efforts and haste to become fully assimilated with our 
people and Americanized. Our political institutions, language, 
sciences, literature, our religious toleration, customs, ambitions, 
aspirations, genius and spirit, must be theirs also now. 

The old governments and conditions which they left, and which 
•were failures, in all that governments should be instituted to secure 
— the welfare of their people — or at least failures in so far. at 
least, as they were concerned who left them— are no more the home 
and country of the naturalized citizen here. 

On becoming citizens here, they, on oath, renounce all allegi- 
ance to the old government, and swore allegiance to this govern- 



FAIUBAULI GOVNTY, MINNESOTA. 383 

ment, under which they and their children are to live henceforth. 
So far as nationality is concerned, the old citizenship and nation- 
ality have, in fact, ceased, and all of whatever nativity, are here to 
be one — all Americans now, in fact, in spirit, in life and labor, hav- 
ing one country, one hope, one destiny, not only for themselves, but, 
perhaps for their children forever. 

Oh! you men who have left the old rotting, dying, hopeless des- 
potisms of the old world, where you were, at best, but political 
serfs, and have come to free, progressive, enlightened America, 
with its grand privileges and possibilities for you and your descend- 
ants, you know that this is a land in which you are free men. where 
you have been freely granted political rights and privileges, un- 
known in the old world, and where you can have hope in the future, 
a future which you can help to make — a land which you can love, 
support, and defend, as the patriot defends, supports, and loves his 
country. And this your adopted country is entitled to, demands 
and expects of you and your children, and of all citizens, whether 
foreign, or native born. And the splendid pages of our national 
history, which record the loyalty, the heroic devotion to the Union, 
the patriotic services and self-sacrifice of tens of thousands of our 
foreign-born citizens, during the late war, makes the assurances for 
, the future doubly sure. 

But there are a few words that should be added here. There 
is a class of foreign immigrants which America has no room for. 
We want none of the criminals and paupers of any of the nations of 
the old world. Nor are the ignorant, turbulent, lower class of Bo- 
hemians, Huns, Russians, Poles, Italians, Roumanians, Greeks, 
Turks, desirable. They are too difficult of assimilation with Amer- 
ican ideas, and political principles. But the better classes of these 
people — the law abiding, the industrious, will always find a welcome 
in America. 

S. S. ASSOCIATION. 

The fourth annual meeting of the County Sunday School Asso- 
ciation was held at Winnebago City on the 28th and 29th of May. 
The meeting was well attended, and of more than ordinary interest. 
It was resolved at this meeting that the association recommend the 
use of the international series of lesson leaves, in the schools. 
Among the resolutions adopted, it was resolved that the church ought 
to be held to a strict accountability for the growth and maintenance 
of the Sunday school, and it should exercise a fostering care and 
general supervision of the school both in its temporalities and 
spirituality. 

Owing to negligence on the part of Sunday school officers, but 
eighteen schools in the county were reported. 



384 mSTonv OF 

Tilt; officers elected for the ensuing year were: C. H. Dearborn, 
president; E. S. Levitt, vice-president; C. H. Patten, secretary; 
Thos. Blair, treasurer. 

THE JUDICIARY. 

The June general term of the district court commenced its ses- 
sion on the first Tuesday in .Tune. 

Hon. F. H. Waito, judge; H. J. Neal, clerk; J.H. Sprout, county 
attorney; A. B. Davis, sheriff. 

There were six criminal and twenty-three civil cases on the cal- 
endar. Here is a little joke which occurred in the Court of King's 
Bench, which should not be lost. If there is any place in which 
dignity, decorum and good manners should prevail it is in our courts 
of justice, and lawyers should set the example. 

Sir Fletcher Norton, whose wantof courtesy was notorious, happened, while 
plead iiifi before Lord Manstleld on some ciuestion of manorial ritiht to say: "My 
lord, I can illu.slrate the point in an instant in my own person. I, myself, have 
two little manors." "We all know It, Sir Fletcher," the judge interposed, with 
one of his blandest smiles. 

This was Judge Waites last regular term in this county, he 
having resigned his ofitice. 

A GLOOMY PICTURE. 

As giving a truthful account of the condition of the countrj', 
the last days of June, we quote the following brief statement from 
some memoranda of an old resident of the county. 

The value of history lies in giving a correct representation of the 
times and events, and their legitimate results and instructive deduc- 
tions. The gloomy and discouraging times and events, with their 
causes and effects must be detailed, as well as those of a brighter 
character. Thus, is seen, through what discouraging times individu- 
als and communities are occasionally called to pass, and the import- 
ant lesson is learned that however gloomy a period may be, the 
clouds do not remain forever, but sooner or later pass away, and 
the sun of prosperity again shines forth. It is well to remember 
always, that however thick and dark the clouds above us may be, 
above and beyond them the sun is shining in its full radiance and 
ever ready to break through. 

.June :i9, 1874, Monday— Things look pretty ploomy financially, in the west- 
ern half of Faribault county, at this time. First, the people, generally, are much 
in debt, many farms and much other property mortgaged, a great stringency 
in the money market all over the country, owing to general causes, but operat- 
ing more severely in this particular section, because of short crops last year. 

Many farmers, by the utmost efforts, were only able to secure seed enough 
to seed their grounds by giving chattel mortgages, looking forward to and hop- 
ing for a good crop, but yet timid and uncertain, because not knowing what 
damage might be done by the grasshoppers. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 385 

Second, The grasshoppers have now proved their destructive powers. Hun- 
dreds, nay, thousands of acres of small grain in the west half of the county 
have been destroyed by their ravages. Probably two-thirds of the crops in 
Verona, considerable in Winnebago City township, much in Jo Daviess, Pilot 
Grove, Elmore and Blue Earth City townships, have been ruined. These pests 
have, for a week past, been migrating northward on a strong S S.-W. wind. On 
Saturday evening last the wind changed, and during Sunday and to-day, blows 
from W. N.-W., and these plagues are now traveling eastward. The crops not 
already destroyed, never looked so well and gave such promise of a bountiful 
harvest at this time, but the myriads of these pests, now spreading over them, 
may destroy all, and at all events, will greatly injure them. 

Third, The hope of securing a north and south railroad from Mankato, by 
way of Winnebago City and Blue Earth City, thence to the coal fields of Iowa, 
for which we have long labored, and which is almost a necessity to this county, 
has vanished. It was confidently expected and promised that the road should 
be built this season, thus affording employment to many, and causing a revival 
of business, and above all things, secure the future. This fact has a serious 
effect on the value of lands, and on every financial and business interest. The 
price of lands here has certainly touched bottom. There is no sale for lands or 
anything else, because of the scarcity of money, the stagnation of business, and 
the discouraging look of the future. I have lived in this county for seventeen 
years, but in all that time have not seen a worse outlook than at present. 
Heretofore there has always been some hope for the future, at least." 

The great Addison somewhere writes: 

"If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend and hope 
your guardian genius.'' 

But Addison never had his crops eaten up by grasshoppers. 

OUR NATAL DAY. 

Notwithstanding the hard times, the scarcity of money — the 
destruction of crops by grasshoppers, as the Fourth of July ap- 
proached the patriotic spirit of our citizens began to awaken, and 
they proceeded to prepare for that event. To some people, this 
event may seem very tame, trite and unimportant, but it should be 
remembered that to many hundreds of others, it was a day of pleas- 
ure, and perhaps of considerable profit and instruction. The day 
proved to be clear and warm. 

Formal celebrations were held at three places in the county. 
At Easton, Hon. J. P. West delivered the oration, and Mr. Whitney 
read the Declaration. This was the first Fourth of July celebration 
held at Easton and was a dedication of this young city, forever, to 
the great principles of civil and religious liberty — to American free- 
dom. 

At Winnebago City, the day was celebrated under the auspices 
of the Grangers. Hon. A. J. Edgerton delivered the oration. 

At Blue Earth City, the Good Templars took charge of the fes- 
tivities. Hon. James E. Child, of Waseca county, this State, was 
the orator, and Geo. B. Kingsiey, of this county, was the reader of 
the Declaration. A large company was in attendance, and the day 
was well enjoyed by all. 



386 HISTOUY OF 

It is well known that no holiday of the year is so enthusiastic- 
ally celebrated by the young people, as the Fourth of July, and the 
noisier it is, the better they seem to like it. It is, indeed, "Young 
America's" day, but it is not usually celebrated with the vim, indi- 
cated in the following incident, told in reference to a boy who ap- 
peared at the Sunday school after the Fourth of July. "I believe 
you are all here," said the teacher to the class. "Yes'm," said the 
boy, speaking for himself, "all 'ceptin' three fingers an' a piece of 
an ear and the hurrahin'." 

WHAT OP THE HARVEST? 

Harvest commenced the third week in July, and the weather 
was generally favorable. 

The red osaka variety of wheat, of which so much had been 
said, and which was thought to be the hope of the country, proved, 
this year, to have suffered greatly from rust. In many places it 
was almost worthless, and some large fields were not even cut. It 
was generally considered that this wheat had had its day. The va- 
rieties that proved best this year were currently named as follows: 
the Halstead, White Michigan, Rio Grande, White Hamburg or Am- 
ber, China Tea, Fife and Golden Droii. Oats, where not injured by 
locusts, were a fair crop. Corn was a good crop. Potatoes suffered 
for want of rain, and were not generally a large crop. But little 
barley was sown, and the crop was light. East of the lands in this 
county, affected by the locusts, the crops, with the exception of 
barley, were very fair, but prices ran down in the fall, and wheat be- 
came as low as fifty eight cents, at Delavan, and went up as high as 
seventy-two cents, but — at the close of the year stood at sixty-five 
cents — oats thirty-five to fifty cents; corn forty-five to fifty cents; 
potatoes fifty cents; pork six and a half and seven cents per pound 
for dressed hogs; flour two dollars per hundred. 

THE LOCUSTS. 

A brief article in reference to the grasshoppers, or more prop- 
erly speaking, locusts, as they appeared to us during the years of 
their visitation here, may be of interest and value to the readers of 
the future. Most of the observations in relation to this insect, here 
recorded, as to their habits, were made at Blue Earth City, in this 
county, during the years 1873 and 1874. 

When this plague came so suddenly upon the county, but few 
knew anything of them and their destructive power, or of the 
methods of dealing with them. The numerous references to the 
grasshopper and the locust, in the scriptures, were, indeed, dimly 
remembered by a few, but they little thought, or realized, that the 
following magnificent description by the prophet, Joel, of their ap- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 387 

pearance and the destruction they work, was ever to find an illus- 
tration here. 

"A Are devoureth before them: and behind them a flame burneth; the land 
"is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; 
"Yea, and nothing shall escape them. 

"The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horseman, 
"so shall they run. Lil^e the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall 
"they leap, like the noise of a flame of Are that devoureth the stubble, as a 
"strong people set in battle array. 

"Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather 
"blackness. 

"They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of 
"war; and they shall march, every one on his ways, and they shall not break 
"their ranks." 

This pest is not the grasshopper with wliich most western people 
were acquainted in the eastern and middle states. It is much 
larger and possesses much greater powers of flight. It has been 
variously named, the grasshopper, the red legged locust, caloptenus 
spretus, the Rocky mountain locust, and is, undoubtedly, a species 
of locust, though much smaller than the full grown locusts, seen in 
the east, at long intervals. 

As to their natui-al habitat, the better opinion appears to be that 
it is in '.'the higher valleys and dry sandy plateaus, within the 
limits of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming. Idaho, Montana and a strip of 
the same width, extending northward into British America, the 
northern limit being unknown," and that they are carried by strong 
and steady winds abroad over certain sections of country. 

The following extract, from an article on the subject, written by 
Mr. J. W. Taylor, gives the best account we have seen of their vari- 
ous visitations. 

"In the records of the Jesuit missions of California, we find early mention 
of the scourge: but with much evidence of its periodicity. Theyear 1722 wasdis- 
astrous; the next visitation was in 1746, continuing three years; next in 1753 
and 17.54, and afterwards in 1765, 1766 and 1767. During this century the periods 
of great destruction in California have been 1828, 1838, 1846 and 1855. In the 
latter years these insects covered the entire territories of Washington and 
Oregon; every valley of the state of California ranging from the P^ciflc Ocean 
to the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada, the entire territories of Utah and New 
Mexico, the immense grassy prairies lying on the eastern slopes of the Rocky 
Mountains, the dry mountain valleys of the Republic of Mexico, and the 
countries of Lower California and Central America, and also those portions of 
the state of Texas which resembles, in physical characteristics, Utah and Cali- 
fornia. The locusts extended themselves in one year over a surface comprised 
within 38 degrees of latitude, and in the broadest part 18 degrees of longitude. 
"In 1856 there was much injury in Texas, Kan.sas and ISIinnesota; and ten 
years afterwards, Kansas and the western districts of Missouri and Iowa suf- 
fered greatly, creating a necessity for public contributions from the eastern 
states to relieve the destitute. 

"Since the settlement of Minnesota there have been Ave grasshopper year^, 
1856, 1857, 1865, 1873, and now, 1874— in each case with a loss of one-tenth of the 
entire crop of the state. 



388 HISTORY OF 

"The history of the lied River Settlement presents a similar proportion of 
years of suffering and exemption. Since the settlement under Lord Selltirk 
In 1812, the locusts have appeared in 1818 and 1819. and then a long interval to 
1857-8, next in 1864-5, doing slight injury: In 18(!7-8, the famine year; in 1869- 
70; in 1872 3; and now in 1874, with ttie proliahility that the ova deposited will 
threaten the crops of 1875. The last seven years have been peculiarly unfortu- 
nate — there being hut one full crop, while the average; loss cannot have heen 
less than one-half. With the extension of settlements in Manitolia, the loss 
will prutiably be reduced to ten per cent— the rate observed in locust years in 
the states west of the Mississippi river, equally exposed to the pest, although 
the calamity is still greatly heightened by the circumstance that special dis- 
tricts are the scenes of devastation. 

"The great treeless pampas of South America have been repeatedly 
covered in various districts by locust swarms." 

About the middle of the last century, they appeared in north- 
ern New England, and proved a great public calamity. 

By reference to the history of the preceding year, it will be 
seen when the locusts made their first visit to this county, since 
its settlement. At that time they remained here long enough to do 
much damage, and to deposit their eggs in the ground. 

They bored innumerable holes in the ground, even in the dry, 
hard beaten road, about a quarter of an inch in diameter and an inch 
deep, and deposited their eggs at tlie bottom. The ground, in many 
places, had a very strange appearance indeed. 

Many persons in the spring of this year, (1874), prophesied 
that we should not again be troubled with the grasshopper, they 
believing that the frosts of winter had destroyed the eggs deposited 
the previous year, and that this country was not natural to them, 
■was not adapted to their wants. How vain were all these hopes I 
About the 7th to the 9th of May, the weather being quite warm and 
dry, they began to hatch and come out of the ground. They imme- 
diately — though as small as fleas — commenced the work of destruc- 
tion, and grew rapidly. About the 15th to the 20th of June, they be- 
gan to gel wings. Up to this time they had already done an immense 
amount of damage to the wheat and oats, especially in the towns uf 
Elmore, Jo Daviess, Pilot Grove, Verona, Winnebago City and the 
west half of Blue Earth City township. 

It should be stated here, that it is a vain supposition, sometimes 
entertained, that streams or lakes, or tracts of woodland, will im- 
pede their migration, or that frosts, wet weather, floods, storms 
or tempests can seriously affect them. 

The question may be asked here, what all do they eat? The 
answer is simply— everything that is eatable, and some things that 
are not. They have a preference for garden vegetables, except 
peas — cultivated crops of all kinds, wheat, oats, corn, barley, flax, 
potatoes and tame grasses, and in default of these, then wild grass 
and the leaves and bark of shrubbery and young trees. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 389 

In looking over the fields which they have desolated, one rea- 
lizes what is meant by the words "the grasshopper shall be a bur 
den," and the words above quoted — "The land was as the garden of 
Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; nothing 
did escape them." 

After having destroyed the crops in the several towns, above 
mentioned, the pests left us on the seventh of July. The event is 
remembered as the great exodus. 

The day had been oppressively warm, the themometer standing 
from one o'clock to five o'clock p. m., at 102° in the shade, and there 
was but little air astir. About 4:30 p. m., it was discovered that the 
sky was full of flying locusts. But these words do not give an ade- 
quate idea of their numbers — they were in swarms of millions, flying 
high and passing rapidly to the southwest. For an hour or more, 
they kept passing thus, while other millions, all about, were raising 
from the ground and joining the hosts on the wing, and on that day, 
over a vast extent of country, they arose and left. It was a great 
exodus indeed, and it was thought, by many, that they were taking 
their final leave of this country, which in the main proved to be true, 
so far as this county was concerned. Yet there were places where 
they remained in the State, and deposited their eggs, but (with the 
exception of Brush Creek and several adjoining towns, where they 
did no damage) not in this county, nor in the counties west of this. 
Their subsequent appearance was that of those that could fly. The 
greatest injury is done where they hatch, for they must subsist 
upon the country until able to migrate. 

The territory desolated by the locusts during this year, was 
northwestern Iowa, the western portion of Minnesota, that is, west 
of a line running north and south, coinciding with the Blue Earth 
river and continued to the north boundary of the State — large dis- 
tricts of Dakota, a great part of Nebraska, southern and western 
Kansas, and a part of Missouri, and in all this vast territory, great 
destitution and suffering was caused by their ravages, requiring 
regular organized systems of assistance and contribution, from more 
favored localities, and thousands of dollars of State aid, to prevent 
starvation or depopulation. 

A serious question presents itself; is there not some method by 
which the locusts may be destroyed and their depredations pre- 
vented. When they first appeared in this county, the people were, 
as above stated, unacquainted with them and practically pei'fectly 
helpless. The remark was often made, "were these plagues only 
wild animals, say even an army of elephants, or an organized army 
of human enemies, we could fight them and at least hurt them some," 
but against these pests there seemed to be no human device. And 
such was almost, literally the truth. Yet there were certain things 



390 HISTORY OF 

done and others that might be done to greatly lessen their numbers 
and fonsequeutly their damages. 

Most of the methods employed in certain portions of Eurojje 
and Asia, where the people have been troubled with locusts an- 
nually, for centuries, and now care little for them, are not practic- 
able here because of our sparce population. The principal methods 
of destroying them here, were tirst to destroy the eggs on plowed 
land, which may be done to a considerable extent by early fall 
))lowing, which breaks up the nests and throws the eggs to the sur- 
face, the exposure killing them. But this is of no avail when the eggs 
are deposited on wild lands. Small fields were sometimes protected 
temporarily by two persons taking a long rope and passing it over 
the grain, when the hoppers were quite j'oung and thus drive them 
out of the fields. Still another method used somewhat, in small 
fields, before the pests could fly, was that of laying wini-ows of hay 
at intervals through the field, and then drive the locusts upon the 
hay and immediately setting fire to the hay. 

But the most effective instrument ever invented for the des- 
truction of the grasshoppers in this country on cultivated lands, 
was the famous death dealer, known as the hopper-dozer. This in- 
vention, like many another much needed invention, came at a late 
day — 1877. It consisted simply of a common piece of sheet iron, 
six or eight feet long, with a small strip of board along the two 
larger sides, to give it stiffness, and a string, or wire, by which to 
draw it, extending from the two front corners, and the whole sheet 
covered with coal-tar. By drawing this instrument over the fields 
and gardens, at the period between the hatching and the winging of 
the insects, the young hoppers jump upon it, and are held by the 
tar and soon die. It is simply wonderful what quantities of the 
insects can thus be gathered and destroyed. They were used very 
extensively throughout the infested towns of the county after their 
introduction. Large quantities of tar were purchased at the public 
expense, and distributed to the several towns for this purpose in 
1877. 

But in any genei'al invasion of the country, all those local 
methods of destroying the insects are of but uncertain advantage, 
for if destroyed in one locality to day, to-morrow others might light 
down again, as thick as ever, and, therefore, any real remedy must 
be one of a general character, such as will destroy them over large 
districts of country, at the same time. 

Some one of a practical turn of mind may now be ready to ask, 
can not these locusts be put to some practical use? Certainly they 
can, as will appear from the following article quoted from a good 
authority. And any one who chooses, may make use of them, when 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 391 

they appear again. Such large quantities of them, should not be 
permitted to go wholly to waste. 

"In Turkey, Persia, Arabia, anrl all that region of country, locusts— genuine 
i)OMo^de locusts— have been eaten from remote antiquity, and to this day, they 
form an important item of the food used by the common people. The Bedou- 
ins collect them in immense quantities, and, after a partial drying, pacli them 
in sacks. Then at their convenience, when the season for collecting is over, 
they steam the insects in closed vessels over a hot Are, winnow them in broad bas- 
kets to remove the legs and wings, and then pulverize them between flat stones. 
When wanted for food, they are only moistened with a little water, just as the 
Arabs do in preparing their date-Hour, and then the repast is all ready." 

In relation to the damages done by the locusts during this year 
in our own State, we present the following estimates, made by the 
St. Paul Press, which were doubtless very correct. In our own county, 
undoubtedly one-third of the entire crop of the county was destroyed 
by them this year. 

GRASSHOPPER RAVAGES. 

The St. Paul Press draws the following conclusions with respect 
to the grasshopper invasion in Minnesota: 

"It is safe to estimate the tilled area in the ravaged district at 275,000 
acres, and of the area of wheat in that district at 200,000 acres. Of this area, 
probably not less than 150,000 acres have been destroyed. This represents not 
less than 2,500,000 bushels of wheat devoured in the germ by the grasshoppers, 
or about one-twelfth of the wheat crop of the State. Add to this area 40,000 
acres of oats, at 33 bushels per acre, or 1,320,000 bushels in all, or one-twelfth of 
the oat crop of the State; 20,000 acres of corn, at 32 bushels per acre, or 340,000 
bushels, or one-twelfth of the corn crop of the State, and perhaps 20,000 acres 
more in rye, buckwheat, barley, potatoes and other crops — and the full extent 
of the grasshopper havoc can be easily estimated." 

THE NEWSPAPERS AGAIN. 

The Wells Atlas "changed hands" in September. W- Keller 
becoming the editor and proprietor, Mr. Calvert retiring. Another 
change was made in the early part of December, and on the sixteenth 
of that month the paper came out under the new name of the "Fari- 
bault County /yeader," H. L. LaDue, editor. The paper continued 
to be a seven column sheet, neatly printed and mainly devoted to 
local affairs. The inside was printed abroad, outside at home. 

vox POPULI. 

An important election was now near at hand. Among other 
public officers to be chosen, were two judges of the sujDreme court, 
a judge of the sixth judicial district, and a member of congress. 

Mark H. Bunnell was the republican congressional candidate, 
and Franklin H. Waite, for some years our district judge, was con- 
gressional candidate of the opposition. 



392 HISTORY OF 

On the first day of October, a County Council of the Patrons of 
Husbandry was held at Delavan, at which, among other business 
transacted, the following nominations were made: 

For Representatives— Thomas George and Geo. A. Barnes. 

For County Auditor— J. A. Arnold. 

For Register of Deeds— Henry R. Walker. 

For Surveyor — Geo. Weir. 

For County Commissioners— 1st District, W. T. Ives; 2d District, 
P. W. Temple; 4th District, J. A. Latimer; 5th District. J. Anderson. 

The Republican County Convention met at Blue Earth City, on 
the eighth day of October. A. A. Huntington was chosen chairman, 
and G. W. Buswell. secretary. The convention proceeded to make 
the following nominations: 

For Representatives— F. M. Pierce and Geo. A. Barnes. 

For Auditor— W. W. White. 

For Register of Deeds— F. P. Brown. 

For Surveyor — George Weir. 

For County Commissioners— 1st District, C. W. Jones; 2d Dis- 
trict, F. W. Temple; 4th District, E. H. Hutchins; 5th District, D. 
Catlin. 

Soon after the last mentioned convention, J. P. West, of Wells, 
was announced as an independent candidate for repi'esentative. 

The Democratic and Liberal Republican Convention was held Oc- 
tober 10th. D. P. Wasgatt was chosen chairman, and G. W. PoUeys. 
secretary. This convention nominated Robert Andrews and Thomas 
George for representatives, and the following named per.^ons for 
county commissioners: 1st District, Allen Shultis; 2d District, 
Geo. B. Kingsley; 4th District, J. A. Latimer; 5th District, D. Catlin. 

No nominations were made for the offices of auditor and regis- 
ter of deeds. 

In consequence of the resignation of Franklin H. Waite, judge 
of the 6th judicial district, to which this county belongs, a republi- 
can judicial district convention was held at Madelia, Watonwan 
county, October 13th. Daniel A. Dickinson, of Mankato, was nom- 
inated as the candidate for judge. 

Daniel Buck, of Mankato, was the candidate of the opposition 
to the republican nominee. 

Here were two Daniels seeking to come to the judgment seat. 

A few days before the day of election, Geo. A. Barnes, a candi- 
date for representative, withdrew, and on Friday preceding the 
election, Geo. W. Whallon, of Blue Earth City, came out as a candi- 
date for representative, in the place of Mr. Barnes. The campaign 
was not a very lively one, except for about three days immediately 
prior to election day. 

The election was held on the third day of November. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, BIINNESOTA. 393 

For Member of Congress the vote stood: For M. H. Dunnell, 
903; for F. H. Waite, 756. Mr. Dunnell carried the district. 

For Judge of District Court, Daniel A. Dicliinson had 866 votes, 
and Daniel Buclc had 817. Mr. Dickinson carried the district. 

The following table taken from the official canvass of votes for 
representatives and county officers, other than commissioners, pre 
sents the final results: 

For Representatives, Whallon, 602; Pierce, 813; West, 792; 
George, 574; Andrews, 401. 

For Auditor, White, 1,526; Arnold, 154. 

For Register, Brown, 1,437; Weaver, 249. 

For Surveyor, Weir had 1,680. 

Amos Preston was elected county commissioner for District 
No. 1; F. W. Temple for District No. 2; E. H. Hutchins for District 
No. 4, and D. Catlin for District No. 5. 

THE BEE. 

About the first of December ''The Delavan Bee," published at 
Delavan, by C. Huntington, was removed to Blue Earth City, and 
the name was changed to The Bee. 

With the remark that 1874 was the last year of the second 
decade in the history of the county — ^twenty annual milestones past 
—we close the record of the year. 



394 HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER XXI. 

A. D. 1875. 

The winter of 1874-5 was what is described by the phrase ' 'a 
hard winter." 

In this county we had, on tlie oigiith of January, a very severe 
snow storm — a blizzard — and on the 2d and 3d days of February, 
we were visited by another of those fierce storms, and again on the 
10th and 23d days of the same month, the storms were severe. At 
the latter date, a very heavy northeast snow storm prevailed over 
the whole country. The cold, at times, during the winter was in- 
tense. 

We append a general description of the winter taken from the 
St. Paul Pi-ess, of March 12th. 

"The unparalleled severity of the winter is a subject of freijuent dolorous 
comruent by the eastern journals. All the eastern states have suttered from it. 
I-iut Canada has been covered with such mountains of snow as to make travel 
inipossilile. Large districts havi' been isolated for months from the commer- 
cial centers, and large stores of grain, cattle, farm produce and manufactured 
goods are locked up behind the barriers of ice. The result is that all through 
Canada trade is almost at a standstill, and a severe panic and tight money 
market is the consequence. The same experience in a less aggravated form has 
atllicted all the northern belt of states. The severe cold has struck a chill into 
the marrow of trade, which has been benumbed and paralyzed. It is predicted 
that the opening of spring will witness a revival of business, and they already 
begin to feel it in Chicago." 

THE COURTS. 

The district court commenced its winter term January 5th. 
Hon. A. C. Woolfolk, of Mankato, having been appointed by the 
governor of the state to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resigna 
tion of Hon. F. H. Waite, presided at this term, the judge elect. Hon. 
D. A. Dickinson, not having yet qualified. The calendar contained 
seven criminal and thirty- six civil cases. 

The progress of business was interrupted somewhat by the ill- 
ness of the judge during the session. At the June term, Hon. D. A. 
Dickinson presided, being his first term in this county. There 
were four criminal and thirty-eight civil cases on the calendar. 

Among the 'ievitios of the law," we find the following incident, 
which is entirely too good to go into the waste basket. It is well 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 395 

known that there is a class of lawyers who take great delight in 
trying to confuse and browbeat witnesses, and make them testify to 
what they do not wish, or contradict their own statements. Here 
is a witness, however, who "turned the tables." 

"Do you know the prisoner well?" asked the attorney. 

"Never knew him sick," replied the witness. 

"No levity," said the lawyer sternly. 

"Now, sir, did you ever see the prisoner at the bar?" 

"Took many a drink with him at the bar." 

"Answer my question, sir," yelled the lawyer. "How long have you known 
the prisoner?" 

"From two feet up to five feet ten inches." 

"Will the court make the " 

"I have, Jedge," said the witness, anticipating the lawyer. "1 have 
answered the question. I knowed the prisoner when he was a boy two feet 
long to a man five feet ten." 

"Your Honor " 

"It's fact, Jedge; I'm under oath," persisted the witness. 

The lawyer arose, placed both hands on the table in front of him, spread 
his legs apart, leaned his body over the table, and said: 

"Will you tell the court what you know about this case?" 

"That ain't his name," replied the witness. 

"What ain't his name'" 

"Case." 

"Who said it wa*?" 

"You did. You wanted to know what I knew about this Case. His name's 
Smith." 

"Your Honor," howled the attorney, plucking his beard out by the roots, 
"Will you make this man answer?" 

"Witness," said the Judge, "you must answer the questions put to you." 

"Lynd o' Goshen, Jedge, hain't I been doin' it? Let the blamed cuss flre 
away, I'm all ready." 

"Then," said the lawyer, "don't beat about the bush any more. You and 
the prisoner have been friends?" 

"Never," promptly responded the witness. 

"What! Wasn't you summoned here as a friend?" 

"No, sir; I was summoned here as a Presbyterian. Nary one of us was ever 
Friends. He's an old-line Baptist, without a drop of Quaker in him." 

"Stand down," yelled the lawyer iu disgust. 

"Hay?" 

"Can't do it. I'll sit down or stand up " 

"Sheriff, remove that man from the box." 

Witness retires, muttering: "Well, if he ain't the thick-headedest cuss I 
ever laid eyes on." — Utica Observer. 

AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS. 

The Agricultural Society, at its annual meeting, January 5th, 
elected M. B. Pratt, president, P. W. Temple, secretary, and D. 
Freer, treasurer. The treasurer reported as the receipts of the year, 
$249.38; disbursements $221.15, and that the society was out of debt 
and had §28.28 in the treasury. 



390 BISTORT OF 

About the first of September, another Agricultural Society was 
formed in the county, at Winnebago City, designed, not only for 
this county, but for the Blue Earth Valley. A. H. BuUis was chosen 
president. F. Gale, treasurer and B. F. Goodwin, secretary. Notice 
was given that the fair of the society would be held at Winnebago 
City, on the 16th and 17th days of September, and regulations and 
a premium list were published. The fair, however, was not held. 
This organization proved a failure. 

The fair of the established society was held at Blue Earth City 
on the 23d and -4th days of September. The premiums offered 
amounted to 8500. Besides the usual attractions, the following al- 
luring announcements were made on large and conspicuous posters: 

"Running, Trotting, English Hurdle and Foot races. Buckskin 
Joe, for 17 years a captive among the Indians, with forty Indian 
warriors, will give a sham Indian fight, on the fair grounds." 

The fair was a success, but Joe did not appear, nor did the 
fight occur. 

THE PARLIAMENT. 

The seventeenth State Legislature assembled on the fifth day 
of January, and adjourned March 5th. At this session, the county 
was represented by S. P. Child, of Blue Earth City, in the Senate, 
and J. P. West, of Wells, and F. M. Pierce, of Winnebago City, in 
the House. Geo. W. Buswell, of this county, was First Assistant 
Clerk of the House, and Charles A. Rose, of this county. Fireman 
for the Senate. 

The following are the titles of the several acts of the legislature 
of this year, relating to this county: 

An act to authorize the board of county commissioners of certain counties, 
(including Faribault), to remit and refund a portion of the tax levied for the 
year 1874. 

An act to extend the time for the payment of personal property taxes for 
1874, in certain towns in this county. 

An act to amend the charter of Winnebago City. 

Au act to appropriate money ($20,000) for the immediate relief of the suffer- 
ing settlers on the frontier. 

An act to appropriate money {87."),O0O) to aid the destitute settlers of coun- 
ties devastated by grasshoppers. 

An act to authorize the electors of the independent school district No. 7, in 
Winnebago City, to fix salaries of ofllcers. 

An act to authorize certain counties (including Faribault) or any of the 
towns therein, to issue bonds to aid in the construction of railroads. 

An act to amend an act to authorize the supervisors of Clark township to 
issue bonds. 

An act to appropriate five hundred dollars to aid in constructing a bridge 
across the Blue Earth river, at Howe's Ford. 

An act to appropriate three hundred dollars to aid in constructing a bridge 
across the east branch of the Blue Earth river, north of Blue Earth City. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 397 

An act to appropriate six hundred dollars to erect a bridge across the east 
branch of the Blue Earth river, In Blue Earth City township. 

Hon. S. J. R. McMillan was, at this session, elected United 
States Senator. The relief acts above specified were rendered neces- 
sary because of the grasshopper devastations, and by the three acts 
last mentioned, the county secured, out of the internal improvement 
fund, much needed appropriations to aid in the construction of im- 
portant bridges, amounting in all to $1,400.00. 

Under the 120,000 relief act, the sum of $400.00 was allotted to 
this county, which sum was distributed among the destitute, by A. 
Preston, F. W. Temple, and E. H. Hutchins, commissioners. This 
distribution was made about the first of March, and was made in 
merchandise, to such as proved themselves deserving. 

Under the provisions of the $75,000 act, above specified, 1,900 
bushels of sealed wheat were distributed in this county, to grass- 
hopper sufferers, during the month of April. There were about 
125 applicants. Over 1,500 bushels were distributed at Blue Earth 
City, the same having been purchased of the farmers in the vicinity, 
who had not been injured by the grasshoppers, at an average cost 
of seventy five cents a bushel. The balance was distributed at 
Winnebago City, and was purchased in the immediate neighborhood, 
at an average cost of ninety cents per bushel. P. W. Temple, at 
Blue Earth City, and E. H. Hutchins, at Winnebago City, commis- 
sioners, superintended the purchase and distribution of the grain, 
at these several places. 

THE ARBITERS OF THE COUNTY. 

Meetings were held during the year by the commissioners, Jan- 
uary 5th, March 10th, July 26th, September 7th and October 5th. 
Amos Preston, of Elmore, was chairman for the year. The only 
notable fact in the business done, was that an unusual amount of 
money was appropriated during the year for the building of bridges, 
a much needed improvement, and many valuable bridges were 
erected. 

PITHILY PUT IN PARAGRAPHS. 

Hei'e are some local gleanings grouped together, which should 
not be omitted: 

On the nineteenth day of January, the first number of the 
"■Vedette" a small, neatly printed newspaper, was issued at Blue 
Earth City, by the Burleson Brothers, two boys, the eldest of whom 
was not eighteen years old. It was a religio-literary sheet, and it 
was much admired and well patronized. 

During the latter part of January and through the month of 
February, considerable excitement existed in certain portions of the 



398 HISTORY OF 

county, caused by the circulation of a petition to the le^ishiture, 
praying the passage of an act granting the privilege of voting upon 
the removal of the county seat from Blue Earth City to some point 
on the Southern Minnesota Railroad. The canvass in behalf of the 
petition was (juite active, and resulted in obtaining many names. 

A committee was soon appointed by the board of trade, of Blue 
Earth City, to jirepare and circulate a remonstrance. To this latter 
pa])er a majority of the legal voters of the county subscribed their 
names, and the remonstrance was sent to the legislature. But the 
petition was not presented to that body, and no act was passed in re- 
lation to the matter, and the whole alfair fell to the ground for the 
time being. The question of the removal of the county seat was 
again brought up in the fall, when the friends of the measure sought 
to make it a political issue. 

The Faribault Count]/ Leader published at Wells, on the four- 
teenth of April, passed into the hands of Col. C. A.' Lounsberry, 
former owner. 

fish! fish! 

The State Fish Commissioner's repoi'tfor this year, states, that 
there are in this county, about 7,080 acres of land covered by water. 
Probable 7.000 acres of which are suitable to the cultivation of fish. 
It is said that ten acres cultivated to fish, (to use the language of 
the report), are worth more than ten acres of any ordinary product. 

This was deemed a matter of great importance to the people of 
the county. Pish furnish a cheap, wholesome and palatable food. 
It was the opinion of many, that it would require but a short time 
to stock our numerous lakes and streams with the best kinds of fish, 
such as white fish, salmon, shoadic, bass, trout and others, that may 
prove adapted to our waters. This was the first year in which the 
matter was brought to the attention, fully, of our people. One thous- 
and Pacific salmon were put into Minnesota lake in the early part 
of the year. 

The hopes entertained at the time were not realized. 

The P. C. S. S. Association held its fifth annual meeting at Blue 
Earth City, on the 2Gth and 27th days of May. A. K. More, Sr., 
was elected president; Rev. S. L. Rugg, vice-president; C. H. Pat- 
tin, secretary, and C. B. Miner, treasurer. Among the interesting 
questions discu.ssed at this meeting were the following: "The 
Pioneer Sunday school and its relations to the Church." • -Modes of 
teaching infant classes." "Sunday school singing," 

DEBRIS. 

Here is a handful of events occurring in the outside world dur- 
ing the year, which attracted much attention. 

January 1st. The Spanish monarchy I'estored. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 399 

January 11th. The trial of the great Beecher case began, which 
lasted nearly six mouths. Probably no cause ever brought before 
the courts of justice, in any age, elicited such a profound interest 
with so many millions of people as this. 

February 25th. The French Republic definitely recognized. 

March 20th. A tornado in Georgia, caused great loss of life 
and property. 

May 18th. A terrible earthquake occurred in New Granada, S. 
A. The city of Cucute was destroyed. 3,000 lives lost and $8,000, - 
000 of property destroyed. 

July 31st. Ex President Andrew Johnson, died. 

September 16th. A frightful cyclone appeared in the Gulf of 
Mexico — Galveston, Texas, threatened to be submerged. 

November 22d. Henry Wilson, Vice President of the U. S. , 
died. 

HARD TIMES. 

A word now in relation to the character of the times, financially 
and otherwise, is appropriate here. In consequence of the financial 
panic of 1873, and other causes, some of which were local, here, the 
whole condition may be described by the phrase "hard times." A 
fuller statement of the condition of things throughout the country, 
is found in the following extract form an address delivered by the 
writer in February, of this year: 

And to lay aside our usual boasting and to deal in stern facts, our situa- 
tion as a people, at this time, is in many respects far from satisfactory. 

Here are the first lines of the President's annual message, delivered to Con- 
gress but a few months ago: "Since the convening of Congress, one year ago, 
the nation has undergone a season of prostration in business and industries 
such as has not been witnessed with us for many years." 

I add. A million of workmen are out of employment— many manufactories 
are idle— commercial transactions deranged— mines have ceased to be operated, 
and bankruptcy stares the mercantile world in the face. But let us look fur- 
ther, are there not greater evils extant in the land? It is a sad truth, that the 
age in which we live is one of extraordinary moral degeneracy. A reckless dis- 
regard of the obligations of the moral and civil laws, alike, seems to prevade all 
classes of society, to an alarming extent. It is an age which excuses an act of 
shrewd selfish villainy, but for an error, or an honest mistake, there is little for- 
giveness. It is the age of Credit Mobilers, Salary grabs, of gigantic monopolies, 
Congressional subsidies, rings and jobbery, an age of shoddy tinsel and pre- 
tense, or innumerable shams and cheats— an age characterized by a wild hunt 
after office, by extravagance and display, and an insane haste to get rich. This 
latter evil seems to be the root of the others, to get rich quick, by any means at 
hand, fair or foul, ignoring the old ways of steady, but slow, and honest accum- 
ulations. 

But this is not all. Every newspaper is filled with the details of the most 
revolting crimes, but high over all, are the deeds of official and social corrup- 
tion and financial rottenness. When was there an age so characterized by 
bribery, defalcations and breeches of trust. Demagogues everywhere buying their 
way into office by the grossest bribery, and men violate the most sacred trusts 



400 UI STORY OF 

with shocking audacity. Corporations, public and private, are constantly being 
rolibtd by their own olllcers, of ononiious sums, and fraud stalks through the 
land at noon-day, and the deparvitv of villainy, seems to be reaching its climax 
when it seeks, as in many late instances, to excuse it's deeds, and make them 
respectable, by charging, with devilish ingenuity, like crimes upon those of high 
character, purity of life and honesty of purpose. 

But the fact that these things are so, is not the worst feature of the case. 
As a citizen, and not as a moralist, I assert, that the depraved moral sentiment 
which excuses and winks at these things, so current over the land, is inflnitely 
more to be deplored than the existence of tha facts themselves. 

It does seem as though we were cutting loose and drifting away form the 
ancient moorings. 

The fact was that the stringency of the times was steadily in- 
creasing. For some reason the tide of immigration was turned to 
other regions further north and west, and two years of partial des- 
truction of the crops in this county, by grasshoppers, high rates of 
interest, the calling in of moneys loaned, the urgent collection of 
debts, all uniting with the general causes above stated, tended to 
bring about a very discouraging state of affairs here. 

The currency, the contraction of the currency, silver, green- 
back money, strikes, wages of working men, the rights of the labor 
organizations, were the great political and industrial questions 
which occupied the public attention, from 1873 to 1879. 

During these troublous times, thousands of patriotic hearts 
breathed the jjrayers expressed in the following lines: 

"God give us men! a time like this demands 
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and honest hands! 
Men whom the lust of office does not kill; 
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; 
Men who posses opinion and a will: 
Men who have honor, and who will not lie; 
Men who can stand before a demagogue, 
And damn his treacherous (latteries without winking. 
Tall men, sun crowned, who live above the fog 
In public duty, and in private thinking, 
For while the rabble with their thumb-worn creeds, 
Their large professions and their little deeds 
Mingled in selfish strife, lol Freedom weeps. 
Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps." 

MEMORIAL DAY, MaY 30tH. 

The day of the dead. 

The recurrence this year and every year, of the observance of 
this day at many places in the county, excuses some reference to it 
here. 

This day is usually called Decoration Day from the principal 
ceremony incident to it, but by the decree of the society of the 
Grand Amy of the Republic, is known as Memorial Day. It is now 
a legal holiday observed in all the states and territories of the 
Union where the dead of the Union armies rest. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 401 

This holiday grew out of the usages instituted as early as 1862, 
in a few localities, of decorating the graves of deceased soldiers and 
sailors. 

The custom spread over the country by the force of its very 
appropriateness, until, finally, the society of the G. A. R. and state 
legislatures took order in relation to it, and it has met with almost 
universal approval and observance since. 

This is a new red letter day in the American calendar. It bears 
some similarity, however, to the ancient Roman festival of the 
Ploralia, but simply because of the profuse use of flowers, its an- 
nual occurrence and celebration in the spring of the year. 

In France a custom has existed for some centuries, of decorat- 
ing the graves of deceased friends, with flowers and evergreens, on 
a stated day of the spring, and in Germany and England, the cus- 
tom has existed to some extent in localities. 

With us it is a beautiful, but indeed, a solemn celebration, held 
in commemoration of the brave men who gave their services to the 
nation in the war for the Union, and fell in the struggle, or have 
since died. 

It is not a holiday devoted to sports, or revelry, or rejoicing, 
but it is the day when loving remembrance writes upon the graves 
of its heroic dead in flowers and garlands and evergreens, the words, 
"In Memoriam." 

"A nation mourns her dead to-day; 
The dead who died our land to save; 
And brings the freshest bloom of May 
To lay upon each honored grave." 

And we have no national anniversary more worthy of perpet- 
uation and universal observance, none in which our people manifest 
a greater or juster pride, none more touching in sentiment, or more 
true and precious than this, and while the nation lives, and patriot- 
ism and heroic self sacrifice are honored in this land, it will continue 
to be celebrated from year to year. 

What is the grand story of this day? It is the now old, old 
story of the war, but it is so great a story it may be often told. Do 
we even now fully realize and appreciate its vast import and awful 
grandeur? Let us try to realize its true significance, that as the 
years go by we forget it not. 

That we may do so, it is necessary that we remember that 
great fact of history, that there arose in this western hemisphere, 
under the Providence of God, from out of the American Revolu- 
tion — the great republic. Nothing like it, in the character of its 
government, or in material, moral or educational progress, or in 
general beneficence to its people, had ever been seen before in the 
annals of time. This great nation was founded upon the principles 



402 HISroItY OF 

of equality, of right, of civil and religious liberty, and self-govern- 
ment. The governed were declared to be under God. the source of 
all political power, and that civil government can justly be instituted 
only by the people and for the people. 

Yet the strange anomaly appeared of the existence in the nation 
from its very foundation, of human chattel slavery in a large por- 
tion of its area. From this evil grew our bitter contentions and 
alienations between the two great sections of the Union known as 
the North and the South. Finally, after almost a century of national 
progress and prosperity — even in spite of this great evil of slavery 
— such as no other nation of ancient or modern times had ever 
known, these contentions, fostered by ambitious and designing men, 
ri])ened into open and armed rebellion, on the part of the South, 
against the authority of the general government. 

They insolently defied the authority of the nation, and designed 
to destroy it by a dissolution of the Union of the States, and the es- 
tablishment of an adjacent, inimical, and rival nation, based upon 
the slavery of a large pai't of its people. No warrant in law, natural, 
civil, or revealed; nothing in the constitution, or in the nature of the 
union of the states, in reason or justice, or even in expediency, 
could be found or alleged as a justification of this act, and its success 
meant the destruction of the life of the nation. 

It was the arm of hell, reached out of perdition, to throttle and 
strangle the last hope of man — for indeed, the great republic had 
become the last and only hope of man's political redemption — the 
refuge of the oppressed of all nations, and when the great shadow 
fell upon it, millions of hearts in all lands stood still with fear of the 
result; for the.y knew, all the world knew, that bound up with that 
result was the fate of civil and religious liberty, and popular gov- 
ernment. Ah! how much there was at stake! And how those 
millions waited, and watched, and prayed! They asked, "can this 
inconceivably great calamity be prevented?" Who will go forth and 
enter into the conflict to maintain the Union, the Constitution, the 
supremacj' of the law, and preserve the nation's life — a cause as just 
and holy as any which ever summoned men to arms since the world 
began? And the nation's defenders came! From the north, and the 
west, and the east! From the mountain and the valley, loyal citi- 
zens, native and foreign born, ))rotestant and catholic, republican 
and democrat, crowding to the front! It was in the fated year of 
1861, the terrific tempest of blood broke upon the nation, and for 
four years a war raged such as had rarely ever been seen among 
the nations of the earth. This great conflict cost billions of treas- 
sure, and what was of infinitely more importance, nearly half a 
million of our people, directly and indirectly, gave their lives that 
our nation might live. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 403 

But for the Union soldiers and sailors, there would now be no 
national union, no republic, no liberty to enlighten the world. They 
not only stood for our national life, but they fought the battle of 
liberty for unborn millions who shall live long after their bones 
are dust. And in that terrible day of blood, when the heavens were 
black with the smoke of battle, and the earth trembled with the 
shock and strife of mighty armies, and deep anxiety was impressed 
on every heart, it was these brave men who stood between our 
northern homes, our great cities, our fertile fields, and vast indus- 
tries, and an insolent, powerful and desperate enemy, who would 
have laid all waste by fire and sword. 

How little we realize these tremendous facts now? But they 
were realized then with fear and trembling. And in the great 
struggle, victory came at last for the union cause. Our nation's 
life was saved! Its enemies destroyed! The curse of slavery abol- 
ished, four millions of people set free, and peace — oh, blessed peace! 
— was once more restored to this fair and united land. 

But from Sumpter to Appomattox, what a bloody highway! 
From Ellsworth to Lincoln, what a sacrifice! 

From all this it may be inferred, indeed, that this great and 
bloody contest was not a war of conquest, nor of subjugation, upon 
the part of the North — it was not a war for plunder, but a war for 
principles, for rights most sacred, and interests of incalculable 
value. 

And it is a worthy and true remark to make, notwithstanding 
the sneer of the shallow and disaffected, that it was not the hope of 
plunder, or promotion, or sordid gain; but it was the deep sense of 
loyalty to duty and the country that led the soldiers of the republic, 
from the highest to the lowest, with but indeed few exceptions, to 
give their lives for this cause. It was this, that, in spite of many 
mistakes and defeats, gained our victories, and brought the final 
triumph. 

And let us not forget, that, while we would not take one jot or 
tittle from the honors due the commanding officers during the war, 
it was, after all, mainly to the private soldiers, many of whom sleep 
in unknown graves, many of whom fell before they ever knew the 
victories they had won, that we are indebted for the grandest 
triumphs of the war. And it is indeed appropriate that in every 
cemetery decorated this day, there is placed a flower and evergreen 
tribute to "the unknown dead of the war." 

Nor are those to be forgotten who returned to us from the en- 
sanguined field to enjoy in peace the blessings of a restored Union. 
They, too, left all for the same cause for that, for which, by the 
fortunes of war, their comrades fell. They returned not as a rabble, 
demoralized and vicious, as some proiJhesied they would, but as 



404 HISTORY OF 

peaceful citizens, glad to lay down, after the victory was won. the 
implements and insignia of war, and enjoy the quiet and rest of 
home, and the arts of peace. 

A grateful country will not forget — has not forgotten them. 

And it is now, annually, on this day, by beautiful ceremonies, 
we seek to honor the memory of the heroic men who Avent down to 
death in this holy cause. 

Yet it is but little that they can be honored by any act of ours. 
They honored themselves. They won their own chaplets of immor- 
tal renown. We can but prove our remembrance, and attest our 
gratitude, for — 

"On fame's eternal camping ground, 
Their silent tents are spread, 
And glory guards with .solemn round 
The bivouac of the dead " 

It has been appropriately said that like all good deeds, sincerely 
done, the observance of this day comes to us like a beneficence, for 
it tends to the elevation of private and national life, and gives us 
better, clearer ideas of the duties of yjatriotism. It indeed appeals 
to our sense of the beautiful, nay, of the grand and sublime, awak- 
ening those sentiments and aspirations that are best in us all. It 
testifies our appreciation of the great lessons of heroic death and 
sacrifice, and the worth of the great boon won for us and the world. 
It proves, too, withal, our sympathy with the bereaved kindred 
whose dear ones in the hour of peril offered their lives a sacrifice 
upon the altar of their country. 

It is written, that it is appointed once for all men to die. The 
soldiers of the Revolution have long since returned to dust. The 
men who fought the battles of the war of "12" have gone to their 
final rest. The heroes, who won the victories under the burning 
suns of Mexico, now living, are but few in number, and the time 
will come (may it long be delayed) when all the soldiers and sailors 
of the last war shall rest in 

"The low, green tents 
Whose curtains never outward swing." 

Many, weary with the lapse of years, burdened with age and 
infirmities, now march in the processions on this day to the ceme 
teries, with feeble, halting and irregular step; day by day, the num- 
bers of their comi'ades here, grow less, and the armies on the other 
shore grow larger. Many of the great leaders, and thousands of the 
rank and file are already there. And, in the course of nature, it can- 
not be long, until, on the great muster roll in the hands of the Angel 
of Death, the names of those now living will be called, and the 
prompt response, "here," will be uttered for the last time on earth. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 405 

But there will always, hereafter, be those who shall assemble 
on this day and strew upon their last resting places beautiful flow- 
ers and evergreens — symbols of affection and remembrance — sym- 
bols of the resurrection and of that hope of everlasting life which 
may await us all. 

Yes, we shall come annually in the glorious spring-time, with 
our tribute of flowers to the memory of the dead, and we shall teach 
our children of the great work these men did for the Nation and the 
world, so that when this generation, who lived in the time of the 
war, shall have passed away, there shall be others to continue so 
worthy a commemoration. 

Heroes "who sleep beneath the sod, 
And wait the trumpet call of God, 
Accept the gift we bring to-day." 

THE LOCUSTS. 

The grasshoppers did no material damage in this county during 
this year, nor did they lay any eggs. The damage done by them, 
however, in other parts of the State was very great. 

In Blue Earth county, adjoining this on the north, much of the 
crop was destroyed. To prevent as much as possible their ravages, 
the county offered a bounty for their destruction. Other counties 
also offered liberal bounties. According to the official report of the 
auditor of Blue Earth county, 15,766 bushels were caught and de- 
stroyed, costing the county §31,255.66. 

The following statement exhibits the deposit of eggs for this 
year: 

THE GRASSHOPPER SITUATION. 
The Mankato Rnnew, 

"The grasshoppers have laid their eggs in portions of Brown, Redwood, 
Lyon, Watonwan, Cottonwood, Murray, Martin and Nobles counties, covering 
a larger area of country than they did last season. ^ 

Then their course was steadily northward, and while, in July their northerly 
line was in this county, before the season was over they had passed through 
Nicollet, Le Sueur, Sibley and into Scott and McLeod counties. This year their 
course is as positively in a southwesterly direction, and from Watonwan and 
Cottonwood they have advanced upon the northern towns of Martin, Jacicson, 
and Nobles, and no doubt will worli: their way into Iowa. Measures'might be 
instituted to largely destroy these eggs this fall, and thus the dangers of next 
year averted. It is not only possible to accomplish that result, but at very 
much less expense than if they are permitted to hatch." 

BREVITES. 

Independence Day was duly celebrated under the auspices of the 
grange at Blue Earth City, on the third day of July, the fourth be- 
ing Sunday. E. Ayers delivered the address and S. W. Graham 
was the reader of the Declaration. On the fifth, the day was com- 
memorated at Delavan. 



406 HISTORY OF 

The day was very generally observed throughout the State. 

A hail storm passed over the county ou the twenty-fourth day 
of July, which did considerable damage, especially in Rome town- 
ship, where the entire crops of several farmers were destroyed. 

The harvest of this year began about the first week in August, 
being nearly a week later than usual. There was much rain. The 
small grain was heavj' and much of it badly lodged. Some had to 
be cut with the cradle or the scythe, the ground being so soft. The 
weather was not favorable, and about the twenty fourth of August, 
just when the grain was mostly in the shock, very heavy, continuous 
rains set in. and for quite a while prevented stacking, and did much 
damage. All kinds of crops were abundant and good prices were 
obtained. The people were much encouraged until the rains set in. 
Prices about harvest were as follows: Wheat, 9o Qi-, ^1.10, with 
upward tendency; oats. 40 @ 45; corn, 45 @ 50; potatoes, 40; eggs, 
8; butter, 14 @ 15; flour. §2.50 Qi. §3.00; pork, 121. Corn was a lit- 
tle backward, but the stand was good, and much more had been 
planted this year than for many years previous. 

On the seventeenth of August articles of incorporation of the 
"Driving Park Association of Winnebago City," were adopted, and a 
certificate published. 

A slight frost occurred in this county on the night of August 
21st. which did but little injury except that it went down into the 
bottom lands, looking after the watermelons, which it nipped 
severely. In the eastern and northern portions of the State, this 
frost was very severe, and much injury was done in certain localities. 
A frost so early is quite unusual. It was nearly a month ahead of 
the ordinary time of frosts. 

THE POLITICAL SYMPOSIUM. 

The election of this fall was quite an important one. as the follow- 
ing State officers were to be elected: A Chief Justice of the Su- 
preme Court, a Governor and Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of 
State. Auditor of State, Treasurer of State. Attorney General and 
Railroad Commissioner. John S. Pillsbury. for Governor, and James 
B. Wakefield, a citizen of this county, for Lieutenant Govenor. were 
the republican candidates for those offices, and D. S. Buel, for Gov- 
ernor, and E. M. Durant, for Lieutenant Governor, were the demo- 
cratic candidates. Four amendments to the State constitution were 
to be voted upon. 

The Republican County Convention was held at Blue Earth City 
on the fifteenth day of September. Fifty-eight delegates were au- 
thorized by the call. C. H. Slocum. of Blue Earth City, was chosen 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 407 

chairman, and C W. Apley, of Minnesota Lake, secretary. The fol- 
lowing nominations were made: 

J. P. West, of Wells, for Senator. 

A. R. More, Sr., of Pilot Grove, and C. S. Dunbar, of Poster, 
for Representatives. 

J. A. Kiester, of Blue Earih City, for Judge of Probate and 
Court Commissioner. 

A. Anderson, of Delavan, for Treasurer. * 

P. P. Harlow, of Winnebago City, for Sheriff. 

H. P. Young, of Blue Earth City, for Coroner. 

M. W. Green, of Wells, for County Attorney. 

Soon after the convention the following independent candidates 
were announced: 

E. H. Hutchins, of Winnebago City, for Senator. 

D. P. Goodrich, of Blue Earth City, for Representative. 

R. B. Johnson, for Treasurer. 

Charles Stockman, for Sheriff. 

J. H. Sprout and B. G. Reynolds, for the office of County 
Attorney. 

The democratic and liberal republican convention was held at 
Blue Earth City on the twenty-third day of September. Allen 
Shultis, of Elmore, was elected chairman, and Geo. A. Weir, of Win- 
nebago City, secretary. The convention nominated Robert Andrews, 
of Wells, for Senator, and S.J. Abbott, of Winnebago City, and Al- 
len Shultis, of Elmore, for Representatives. 

For Treasurer — Geo Barnes, of Minnesota Lake. 

For Sheriff— A. B. Davis, of Winnebago City. 

For County Attorney — Geo. B. Kingsley, of Blue Earth City. 

For Coroner — H. P. Constans, of Blue Earth City. 

No nominations were made for the offices of Judge of Probate 
and Court Commissioner. 

Certain persons residing in the northern portion of the county, 
who favored the removal of the county seat, determined to make the 
matter a political issue, and to arouse public interest, a preliminary 
mass meeting was called at Wells for the fourteenth of October, and 
one at Winnebago City for the fifteenth, and a general people's con- 
vention at Delavan on the sixteenth. The meeting at Wells was not 
large nor enthusiastic, and no meeting was held at Winnebago City. 
At Delavan the meeting was not largely attended, there being only 
some thirty votes cast on the several motions offered. The following 
nominations, which seem to have been made without much refer- 
ence to the opinions of the nominees on the removal question, were 
made: 

E. H. Hutchins, for Senator. 

S. J. Abbott and D. P. Goodrich, for Representatives. 

R. B. Johnson, for Treasurer. 



408 IIISTOnV OF 



Id The Politicians wc read. 



"There names were U•^;i()ll, nol :t sjtol 
In those days liy-pinc knew thorn not; 
They swarmed and tlilted everywhere, 
As locusts iti the desert air, 
In nuiuliiTs, countless as the sands, 
With famished hearts and acheing hands, 
And thirsty lips, that seemed to sigh 
For public udders to suciv dryl" 

—Ilolley. 

The election was held November 2d. The following table ex- 
hibits the ofiBcial canvass: 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 



409 



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410 



HISTORY OF 



Tho republican candidates for State officers were elected. The 
vote in this county for jjovernor was as follows: 

Pillsbury— Republican 1,188 

Buel— Democrat 465 

THE STATE CENSUS. 

In June, of this year, a State census was taken, the town- 
ship assessors doing the work. The following is a condensed state- 
ment of certain items of the returns: 



Kicstor 

Seely 

Rome 

Elmore 

Pilot Grove 

Foster 

Brush Creek 

Emeralfl 

Blue Earth City. 

Jo Diiviess 

Wells Village.... 

Clark 

Walnut Lake... 

Barber 

Prescott 

Verrina 

Dunbar 

Minnesota Lake. 

Lura 

Delavan 

Winnebago City. 

Total 



$ 97,202 
86,448 
98,980 

i:w,2oi 

105,814 
138,052 
93.226 
156,866 
311,809 
127,472 



229,168 
115,780 
137,700 
168,418 
191,054 
93,394 
1.34,200 
15.3.466 
177,798 
337,796 



a o. 



$ 5,636 
21,315 
19,082 
21,884 
12,023 
17,582 
19,683 
39,758 
9C,203 
12,608 
25,393 
5,034 
15,192 
29,170 
21,958 
24,255 
11,135 
27,457 
33.557 
33,401 
48,429 

$532,655 



fl 


■A 






cn 




c — 




V 










ja 






oa 


.X 


ai 


s 












32 

a. 




. c 

O 3 


-5 
a3 


o 
6 




6 


Oi 


S5 


o 


Z 


Z 


89 


55 


136 


60 


1 


369 


189 


549 


79 


73 


457 


170 


641 


218 


128 


405 


238 


576 


415 


202 


329 


146 


481 


35 


126 


336 


156 


541 


229 


108 


542 


155 


607 


138 


110 


748 


419 


1,308 


453 


327 


1,178 


458 


894 


967 


216 


316 


171 


371 


36 


93 


502 


76 


82 




1 


121 


52 


128 


125 


24 


377 


213 


345 


81 


131 


633 


323 


669 


471 


226 


543 


268 


575 


918 


169 


547 


284 


683 


989 


200 


250 


160 


316 


131 


79 


630 


313 


605 


82 


162 


676 


366 


691 


1,009 


175 


800 


327 


621 


391 


168 


1,158 


407 


788 


180 


193 


11,096 


4,946 


11,607 


7,007 


2,912 






18 
44 
60 
73 
48 
56 
67 

132 

178 
55 
44 
15 
54 

109 
75 
81 
48 
96 

107 
97 

137 



1,594 



PRODUCTIONS 1875. 



Oats 344,985 bushels. 

Barley 18,316 

Beans 1,115 " 

Tame Hay 1,000 tons. 

Wool 18,654 pounds. 

Cheese 53,860 



Wheat 455,528 bushels. 

Corn 228,480 

Potatoes 54,088 " 

Syrup 2,491 gallons. 

Flax Seed 22,649 bushels. 

Butter 212,768 pounds. 

Honey 2,921 

The total assessed value of all taxable property was $3,5"23,715. 
The following statistics, relative to our schools, are taken from 
the report for the year, of the county superintendent. R. W. Rich- 
ards: 

No. of Districts 109. There are eighty-two frame, two brick and ten log schoo 
houses, valued at $53,625.00. Paid for teachers wages, $14,120.00. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 411 

I have held eight teachers' institutes and training schools in the county, 
two of two weeks each, and six of one weelj each. The number of per^ns who 
attended the spring institutes was 160, while 83 attended those held in the fall. 
The whole number of persons examined for teachers was 282, of whom 63 re- 
ceived a second, and 136 received a third grade certificate. The other 83 were 
refused. 

The poorest teachers we have, as a class, are those, who come from some of 
the eastern States to spend a summer in visiting friends, and are, through the 
Influence of these friends, hired several months in advance in their friends' dis- 
tricts. They usually come well recommended as noted teachers, and they sus- 
tain their reputation as a general rule, as being noted for their failures. 

They usually manage to come '■'just a little too late to attend the Institute,'" so 
they go into their schools without any apparent plans or ideas, other than uti- 
lizing the visit with friends. 

I linow not whether any other counties are victimized by these health- 
seekers. We have suffered now for six years, but this is the first time I have 
publicly protested against it. 

There are some good teachers among this class, but the contrary is the rule 
and not the exception. 

A NEW PAPER. 

On the seventh day of October, the Wells Gazette appeared and 
arose from the ashes of the Wells Atlas. The career of the Atlas, 
always among the leading papers of the county, after many fluctua- 
tions of fortune came to an end. Geo. W. Plumley, an active 
newspaper man, was the editor and publisher of the Gazette. It was 
a seven column sheet, neatly printed — "patent internals and home- 
spun externals." 

THE AUTUMN. 

" 'Tis past! no more the summer blooms; 

Ascending in the rear. 
Behold! congenial autumn comes, 
The Sabbath of the year."— iogian. 

The autumn weather of this year was very fine for plowing, 
husking and threshing, until the middle of November, when winter 
set in. Indeed, the autumns are, usually, in this northern latitude, 
the most agreeable season of the year. Other lands may boast of 
the spring, or the summer, but nowhere on the globe, can be found 
a period of the year, more pleasant than the usual autumns of Min- 
nesota. 

The autumn! the season of the ripening and gathering of the 
fruits of the tree and shrub and vine, the season of Indian summer, 
later of "the sere and yellow leaf." 

The harvest is over, the grain has long been in the stack, the 
busy plow is at work in the fields, and we hear the humming of the 
thresher, throughout the land. A thousand streams of ripened 
grain are pouring their wealth into the granaries of the husband- 
man. The day of the ingathering and storage, and of wise fore- 
thought for the winter, is with us. 



■11- UISTOUY OF 

In the village and the city, business is growing active. The 
suinmor vacation is over and the summer idlers return again re- 
freshed and rejuvenated, to the usual labors of life. The long 
school vacation has also ended, the school bell is heard again, and a 
new year's work begins. 

This too is the season of the State and county agricultural fairs 
and of conventions and political meetings and the great battle day 
of the ballots. And the Indian summer, the fifth season of the year 
and embraced in the autumn period, is not more beautiful and enjoy- 
able anywhei-e, than in this favored land. 

The sun, now shorn of his fiercest heats, rises, pursues his 
apparent journey and sets, like a ruddy globe of fire, a hazy atmos- 
phere filling the sky, and a warm, soft, dreamy, mellow air has dis- 
placed the extremes of the former season. 

"The haze that bancs upon the hills, 
Enshrouds the blazing sun; 
A tender luster spreads and (Ills 
The air, grown gray and dun." 

A peculiar, pleasant stillness, silence, reigns for weeks over the 
land. Hardly a leaf stirs to the soft touch of the light breezes. Ob- 
jects cannot, because of the dry, foggy atmosphere, be seen, or but 
dimly, except near by, while distant sounds are easily heard, and 
what gorgeous sunsets close these pleasant days. The nights and 
mornings are cool, and fogs envelope the low lands, until dissipated 
by the rising sun. How agreeable are now the night's healthful 
rest and slumber, and the early morning rising. 

And see on every hand: 

"The fading many-colored woods, 
Shade deepening over shade, the country, round, 
Imlirowned; a crowded umbrage dusk and dun 
Of every hue, from wan declining green 
To sooty dark." 

Slight frosts, growing more frequent, crisp and braceing, appear, 
and the time has come in this blessed season to ramble through the 
woods and gather the wild fruits. And now the roadsides and 
hedges and by-ways are splendid with blooming golden rod and 
crimson sumach, and many nameless flowers and shrubs, while the 
foliage of the trees is rich in gold and green and brown and yellow 
and red. But soon comes the falling leaf, the dying vegetation, 
"sober autumn fading into age," suggestive and saddening scenes of 
the closing, dying year, and the day breezes and night winds have a 
mournful cadence — the period of quiet contemplation, when thoughts 
come to us of the brevity of human life and of the great lesson, that 
all things earthly, must, sooner or later, fade and die. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 413 

THE END OF '75. 

The year was characterized by the great abundance of wild 
fruits. Wild grapes and plums were.particularly, plentiful, and there 
was an abundance of all kinds of berries and nuts. And on a clear, 
bright day in September, after the first frosts, we hitched up the 
old family horse in the light spring wagon, and we put in a large 
basket of provisions for ourselves, and a big feed of oats for the 
horse, and some bags and baskets, and the whole family, old and 
young, got in, and we started off in happy spirits for the woodlands, 
along the streams and about the lakes, to spend a day in gathering 
grapes and plums and hazelnuts and butternuts and walnuts, to store 
up for the winter's use. And when the snows are deep, and the 
winter winds howl around the house, we shall gather around the 
cheerful hearthstone, in the long winter evenings, and crack nuts 
and tell stories and read and sing our songs and envy not the rich 
their jileasures. And we had a grand day as we wandered through 
the autumn woods and along the streams and by-way. A day free 
from anxieties and business and domestic cares, for it was so full of 
health and variety and freedom and pure air and exercise, that dull 
cares were forgotten. And we felt the beauty of the scenery, and the 
invigoration fall on us like a blessing. 

How kind and merciful is the Father above us and over all, who 
made all things for us and tinted and colored the skies and the fields 
and the plumage of the birds and the wings of the insects which 
sported their short lives in the sunbeams, and the foliage of the 
trees and the blooming flowers and made the forests vocal with the 
songs of the airy choristers not yet departed for warmer climes, 
blending their wild cadences with the music of rippling streams and 
waterfalls and gentle, whispering breezes. Be still and listen! 
Reader, go forth often to enjoy and commune with nature. You 
will be healthier and happier. 

And now old Boreas has come down from his home in the far 
north, and the birds have flown, the trees are stripped of their leaves, 
and the grass and the flowers of the fields are dead, and the white 
mantle of the snow king is spi'ead over the earth, and the year is 
near its end — Ay, ended. 

"Where goes the candle when it dies? 
The leaf, the music, summer sighs'? 
A finished thought, a world, a death? 
Where is the home of parted breath? 
Where goes a year, an age, nay, thine? 
Where is the end, tlie great sublime? 
All, all but centre, round that Being, 
The Great, Omnipotent, All-seeing! 
Unending, and unchanged forever; 
In vain the end from Him we sever — 
All ends are hid in God!" 



414 EISTOliY OF 



CHAPTER XXIL 

A. D. 1876. 

Hail! All Hail! the Centennial Year 
Of the Republic— The Tear of Jubilee! 

At the beginning of every year we are called upon to note the 
action of certain public bodies, as the same may relate to our county. 
And, as tirst in dignity and number of members and the general im- 
portance of their action, we may refer to the legislature of the State, 
which assembled January 4th and adjourned March 3d. The acts 
passed by this body having any special reference to this county, 
were the following: 

To amend the act of incorporation of Winnebago City. To 
amend the act in relation to the voting of bonds in aid of railroads. 
To provide for the election of county superintendent. To authorize 
the auditor to extend certain taxes on the books. To incorporate 
the village of Minnesota Lake. To change the boundaries of cer- 
tain school districts. 

The county was represented at this session by J. P. West, of 
Wells, in the Senate, and in the House by A. R. More, Sr., of Pilot 
Grove, and Chas. S. Dunbar, of Poster. James B. Wakefield, lieu- 
tenant governor, president of the Senate, Geo. W. Buswell, chief 
clerk of the House, and Chas. A. Rose, assistant sergeant-at-arms of 
the Senate, were also residents of this county. Faribault county much 
apprciated the honor of these high positions conferred upon its cit- 
izens. 

Our attention may next be called to the annual .January term of 
the district court, which commenced its session on the fourth day of 
the month. Hon. D. A. Dickinson, judge, presiding. There were 
four criminal and thirty-seven civil cases on the calendar, many of 
which were disposed of. The term lasted fifteen days, being the 
longest term of court which had yet been held in the county. It was 
the desire of the judge to clear up the calendar as far as possible. 
It may also be stated that the grand jury sat longer at this term 
than ever before. At the June term of this court there were four 
criminal and twenty-five civil cases on the calendar, and the term 
lasted ten days. As a good many jokes are told by the lawyers, and 
sometimes even by the judges, during term time, we here append one 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 415 

related several times of two spectators of a trial, one of whom was 
not much acquainted with court proceedings. 

"Mercy ! how angry those men are ! 

How they do shake their fists in each other's faces ! 

They call each other by all sorts of opprobrious epithets. 

Will they kill one another? 

Hardly. 

But one of them will surely strike; and the other; see ! he will strike back. 

Not a bit of it. 

Why, arn't they deadly enemies, and arn't they terribly angry with each 
other? 

Oh, dear, no ! If you follow them when they go out you will probably find 
them drinking out of the same bottle. 

Then, who and what are they, pray? 

Only a couple of lawyers. That's all. 

Oh!" 

The next important local event was the assembling of the Board 
of County Commissioners, which occurred also on the fourth day 
of January. Frank W. Temple was elected chairman for the year. 
They held a session of six days, being as long a sitting as had ever 
occurred in this county. Much public business was transacted. A 
part of the duties to be attended to at this meeting of the board, was 
the appointment of a superintendent of schools, but, after many bal- 
lotings, which reached no result, they adjourned the matter over to 
the March session. 

This board met again in March, but no business was done of in- 
terest at this time. As to the superintendency, the matter was dis- 
posed of by act of legislature, above referred to, which made the 
office elective at the next general election, and continued the present 
incumbents in ofBce until that time. Other meetings of the board 
were held during the year, the action at which is noted elsewhere. 

The summary of events of this part of the year may now be 
completed by the statement that the annual meeting of the Fari- 
bault County Agricultural Society was held at Blue Earth City, on 
Tuesday, the 4th inst., and was called to order by the president, M. 
B. Pratt. The report of the officers was read and adopted. The 
following is the treasui'er's report of the receipts and disbursements 
for the year ending December 31st, 1875. 

RECEIPTS. 

Gate money July 4th $102. 70 

Fees for entering horses 13.00 

Membership tickets, fair 1875 119.00 

Gate money 82.30 

State apportionment 58.82 

From former treasurer 9.25 

$385.07 



416 HISTORY OF 

DlSHUnSEMENTS. 

Purses paid, July 4th $54.00 

IncidtMilal expenses 13.40 

For wiirk and luiuber 90. 50 

Premiums paid 226.00 

$383.90 
Balance In treasury, January 4, 1876 1.17 

The meeting then pi-oceeded to the election of officers for the 
ensuing year as follows: 

President— S. Pfeffer, Blue Earth City. 
Secretary — J. C. Woodruff, Prescott. 
Treasurer — A. Shultis, Elmore. 

WEATHER. 

The winter of 1875-76, at least after January 1st, was a remark- 
ably fine one. The weather during January and up to the last day 
of February, was very pleasant, there being no snow and no storms. 

On the twenty- ninth of February a snow storm occurred of 
severaldays. During March the ground was covered with snow, 
which went ofE at the close of the month with high waters, and 
March proved to be the real winter month of the whole winter. 

It may appear to be an infringement upon the time of the reader 
to quote the following item, in relation to weather remarks, but it 
hits an almost universal and very useless custom: 

"To go into statistics, it is estimated that during; the year the averaKO man 
has said: 'How are yer?' 3,743 times: 'is this hot enough for you?" and 'is 
this cold enough for you?' each 471 limes; 'pleasan t day,' 10,718 times; 'looks 
like rain,' 12,325} times; other meteorological remarks, not classified, 786,421,- 
107,365,792,001 times." 

STATE FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 
The Banner County. 

During the winter the State Forestry Association was organized 
at St. Paul, to encourage the planting of forest trees on the prairies 
of the State — a most valuable project. The Association appointed 
the first Tuesday of May as Arborday and recommended that on 
that day, trees and cuttings should be set out, throughout the whole 
State. Handsome premiums were offered by the Society to such as 
should, on that day. set out the most trees or cuttings, or both, and 
it was determined that the county which could show the greatest 
number set out, should be known as the banner county. 

It is pleasant to record the fact that this county proved and was 
declared to be the banner county of Ihe State, and that George D. 
Moore, of Pilot Grove, received the largest premiums awarded to 
any person in the county. He set 11.210 trees and cuttings. The 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 417 

number of trees and cuttings planted in this county on Arbor-day, 
was one hundred, ninety-five thousand, two hundred and ninety- 
eight, and the whole number during the year was 1,803,776. 

The Association was permanently organized and was designed 
to continue for a number of years. 

For some years a bounty had been given by the several counties 
and also by the State, to such as should set out trees and cut- 
tings and continue for some years, to protect and cultivate them, 
which greatly encouraged the enterprise, but this Association was 
designed to be more comprehensive in its influence and encourage 
this industry in a more systematic manner. Many valuable pam- 
phlets on the subject of forestry were published for gratuituous dis- 
tribution, by the Society. The objects of the Association must be 
considered of the most commendable character. 

"WOODMAN, SPARE THAT TREE," 

Pew natural objects are of more real use and beauty than 
trees, whether they be fruit, shade, ornamental, or forest trees. 
The great forests of hard woods, or of soft woods' such as the sev- 
eral varieties of pine, are of great utility and immense value in 
many respects, besides that of furnishing lumber. 

A country without natural timber, is wanting in one of the most 
essential requisites of comfortable and profitable occupancy. Such 
a country is apt to be sterile — a desert, and unproductive, because 
of drouths, and is swept by terrible storms, and subject to greatex- 
tremes of temperature. Vast regions of the old world, which were 
once timbered and fertile, but have been denuded of their trees, are 
now almost barren wastes, and their inhabitants have gone back to 
semi-barbarism. 

The existence of large bodies of timber, or even the presence 
of many trees and detached groves, distributed over the land, have 
a marked influence on the humidity of the atmosphere and the rain- 
fall, the evenness of the temperature, and the productiveness of the 
soil. The influence of trees on the climate is very great. The 
streams of water grow smaller as the timber is cut away. Many 
European nations now recognizing these facts, have made provisions 
by law for the protection of their remaining native forests, and in 
both Europe and America, the subject, not only of protecting their 
forests, but also that of growing forests, has attracted the public 
attention. 

Minnesota wisely attended to the encouragement of the growth 
of forest trees at an early day. But the State has done little yet 
for the protection of our native timber, and its destruction goes on 
from year to year. Certain detached portions of all forests should 



418 HISTOUY OF 

be preserved from destruction, or the trees simply "thinned out," 
not all cleared off. 

To cut down a tree, of even a centurj-, or two, in age, is some- 
thing that almost anyone — any fool, can do, but to plant a young 
tree as it should be planted, and have it grow, requires some sense 
and skill. It appears to be always easier, to destroy, than create. 

In some regions the forest must be felled, of course, to get 
arable lauds for cultivation, but the wholesale destruction of forest 
trees, where such a necessity does not exi.«t, is quite another thing. 
But long before the State paid any attention to these subjects, the 
people in the prairie districts of the State commenced the planting of 
trees and gi'oves, of various varieties of indigenous trees, about their 
homes. This county, which in this respect, is but a sample of many 
others, is now dotted all over with groves of from two to tenor more 
acres of rapidly growing forest ti'ees, and while at a little distance from 
a grove on the prairie.you see no habitation near, nothing but a grove, 
yet in the heart of that grove you will find, perhaps, a dwelling, well, 
barns, cribs, cattle yai'ds and other out buildings, all protected by 
the shade of the trees from the heat of summer, and from the storms 
of summer and winter. 

Our better sentiments and natural impulses and instincts incline 
us very strongly to the admiration and love of ti'ees and the green, 
sheltering and homelike groves and wild forests. There is a mys- 
terious tie between them and us, as though mankind and the 
trees are in some way a kin. There is a sort of companionship be- 
tween us. 

''I would not say that trees at all 

Were of our blood and race, 
Yet lingering where theirshadows fall, 

I sometimes think I trace 
A kinship, whdse far-reaching root 

Grew when the world began, 
And made them best of all things mute 

To be the friend of man."— 5. V. C. 

We all have or have had associations with trees, they are our 
friends. Perhaps we played in childhood's years under their pleasant 
shade and often in maturer years, we have sought rest and peace, on 
summer days, under their strong, protecting limbs and thick foliage. 
But there is still another companionship, for where there are trees, 
there the birds are apt to visit and congregate. But, no trees, no 
birds. And trees have a voice of their own. That of the pine differs 
from that of the oak, and that of the oak from the elm, and that of 
the elm from others. Listen, reader, when the breezes blow and 
you will hear those low, soft voices. They are whispering, rustling, 
sometimes sighing and moaning sounds. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 419 

A person residing far out on the treeless prairies, however com- 
fortable a dwelling he may have, feels that he is, somehow, away 
from home. A dwelling without, at least, a few trees about it, is 
lacking something to its comfort as a home. And no other proof of 
this is necessary, than the fact of the pleasure we all enjoy in the 
shade of our trees in summer. Trees, and especially a well kept 
grove, makes a locality homelike. And no man is so poor-, that he 
cannot have a few trees, at least, about his house, either in town or 
country. It is not remarkable that a lone tree on the prairies, is al- 
ways a landmark or guide, but it is a little curious to know that peo- 
ple in its vicinity, are very apt, sooner or later, to visit it and look 
it carefully over, and that without any very definite motive. The 
groves, so often called natures' temples of the ever living God, and 
the great forests, how wonderful they are, how attractive, grand, 
mysterious, the fresh, pleasant odors, the long aisles, the lofty 
arches, the world of living beings, whose homes are there, the realm 
of strange sounds, weird music and dreamy solitude. 

But we need not go to the great forests. What more beautiful 
thing is there in nature, than a well grown, thrifty tree, with its 
strong body, shapely limbs and green, rustling foliage; and the 
mysterious life that is in it, and, if a fruit tree, its fragrant blossoms, 
and then its fruit? Look with an eye of intelligence at such a tree, 
thinli how it grows, its uses, its beauty; what can supply its place, 
what could man do towards making it, with all his skill. All the 
science and art of the world cannot make a live tree. Only Almighty 
God can do that. 

"There's something in a noble tree — 

What shall I say? a soul? 
For 'tis not form, or aught we see 

In leaf or branch or bole. 
Some presence, though not understood, 

Dwells there always, and seems 
To be acquainted with our mood. 

And mingles in our dreams." — S. V. 0. 

Yet some men can see nothing in a tree but the lumber, or fire- 
wood that is in it, or the value of the fruit it can bear, and will think 
all our remarks but sentimental nonsense. 

But, reader, when you find a man that admires trees and loves 
to look at them and work among them, do not say that he is an old 
crank, or has a soft spot in his head, for that is probably not true, 
but what is true is this, that you have found one who has intelli- 
gence enough to appreciate the useful and beautiful, and that has, 
at least, one good spot in his heart. Let us always remember Arbor 
day, and plant a tree. 



420 niSTOHY OF 



THREE ITEMS. 



The spring was backward and but little seeding was done until 
about the nineteenth of April, and corn planting was not begun un- 
til the middle of May. 

Wheat was very low in the spring, and during May and June 
money was exceedingly scarce, in fact during spring and summer 
hard times prevailed, and as indicating the financial situation, 
it may be stated that but little of the public taxes was paid until 
.June 1st, and there was greater delay in paying taxes than had been 
known for years. 

A great hailstorm occurred on Saturday, May 20th, and pre- 
vailed over a large part of the county. A large amount of hail fell. 
At Blue Earth City the storm was severe, and the windows on the 
west side of the houses were badly damaged, but no injury, beyond 
the breaking of glass, was done. The hailstones were larger than 
had ever been seen before in this county. 

THE S. S. ASSOCIATION. 

The action, progress and success of great moral and religious 
societies, no more than those of political parties and commercial 
corporations, can be overlooked in history. They are the conserv- 
ing, elevating, purifying influences of society, without which, every 
human interest would hasten to destruction. 

Strange as the statement may appear, at first sight, it is true, 
that the natural tendency, the bent, so to speak, of every individual, 
community and state, is to retrograde, to revert to the original con- 
dition of barbarism and savagery. There is an element of the bar- 
barous still in the heart of the most civilized races. 

An individual, a dozen, or twenty men, isolated from civilized 
society and free from any external, restraining influences, what- 
ever their other conditions and surroundings may be. would soon 
grow reckless, negligent, indifferent, uncouth and depraved, and in 
less than twenty years, would reach a condition, but little, if any, 
better than that of a barbarian. 

The most cultured state of to-day. if left free from the educa- 
tional and restraining influences of the teachings of the church and 
of other religious and moral societies, and the laws of the land, made 
in pursuance of justice, and morality, or if the influence of these 
saving agencies became greatly inactive, would, in less than the 
period of two generations, revert to the conditions of the savage 
tribes, which so lately roamed over our hills and valleys. 

And it is a sad truth that, even with all the conserving, redeem- 
ing and elevating influences that have been at work in the world, 
the whole earth, since the day when Cain killed his brother Abel, 



FABIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 421 

has been a human slaughter house, too terrible to picture. Per- 
petual wars have deluged the earth in human blood. Even to day, 
the mightiest energies of great nations are not enlisted for the im- 
provement and the happiness of their people, but to secure the most 
efficient means of destroying property and human life. What infer- 
nal spirit has animated the human race, to make men and nations 
each others' worst enemy':' 

And the so-called "laws of the land," on which so many would 
depend, who would abolish religious influences, those laws, hovcever 
wise they might be, would, themselves, be worthless, whatever 
power should be provided to enforce obedience to them, unless 
backed by the moral sentiment and the religious conscience of the 
people, for without these they would be "but ropes of sand." They, 
whose duty it would be to enforce the laws, would, themselves, be- 
come corrupt and inefficient. In fact, wise laws would not exist, to 
begin with, but because of an awakened sense of justice and relig- 
ious conscience. 

And no government worth living under, can long exist without 
the constant cultivation of the sense of justice and of moral obliga- 
tion and duty. 

To progress, in the path of civilization, onward and upward, 
even to retain what the world has already secured, requires great, 
liositive, aggressive and perpetual effort and the use of not one, but 
many moral and religious instrumentalities. To go backward, 
downward, to degenerate, requires no labor. 

The work of the churches and other religious and moral socie- 
ties, even though they may not, at some particular time, or locality, 
appear to be making much progress, are still, and after all the ob- 
jections that may be alleged against them, the real conservators to- 
day of our civilization, and constantly exercise a mighty influence 
in behalf of the welfare of humanity. And when these influences 
are active, progressive and all-pervading, we may look for the 
happiest conditions of mankind. The contest with the powers of 
darkness, degradation and destruction, is indeed a mighty one. 
Among the greatest foes of the human race to day, are intemperance, 
or in other words, drunkenness, lust, and impurity of thought and 
conduct, fraud in its hundred garbs, unholy ambitions, lying, the love 
of money, the worship of wealth, and the studied perversion of 
truth, even of the Scriptures, to justify evil. And these are some of 
the ministers jjlenipoteutiary of satan on earth. While in every 
community there are, happily, some people who labor and give of 
their time and means to elevate the community, there are also 
others, whose principles, conduct and work, tend to mislead, de- 
moralize and degrade it. It certainly seems that every one who 
loves his country and claims to be a free and an honest man and a 



422 HISTORY OF 

good citizen should give every encouragement to all religious and 
reformatory institutions. 

We note with pleasure, the sixth annual meeting of the County 
Sunday School Association, which was held at Wells, on the 30th 
and 31st days of May. The attendance was quite large, there being 
delegates present from all parts of the county. The association 
was in a very prosperous condition, and doing much good work. 

Andrew C. Dunn was elected president for the ensuing year, 
Chas H. Deaborn, secretary, and J. Chestnut, treasurer, and one vice 
president was chosen from each town in the county. A resolution 
was adopted instructing the vice presidents to assist in the organi- 
zation of schools in their respective townships, and to see that 
proper reports and returns be made, punctually, each year. The 
reports had always been defective. The session was a remarkably 
lively and profitable one. 

PARAGRAPHIC PENCILINGS. 

March 1st. — A bill passed by congress recommends all counties 
and towns in the United States to have historical sketches written, 
for July 4th, of this year, and file a copy with the county clerks, and 
one with the librarian of congress. This was an excellent sugges- 
tion, but was not, generally, acted upon. Had it been, much valua- 
ble local history would have been saved to the world. 

May 30th.— The Sultan of Turkey was deposed. 

June 25th. — The Custer Massacre occurred, in which Gen. Custer, 
one of the bravest of the brave, and his whole command of three 
hundred, were killed by the Indians. Not one person escaped to 
tell the story. 

July 12th.— A violent war raging in European Turkey. 

August 1st —Gen. Belknap, secretary of war, was impeached 
by the House of Representatives. He was acquitted by the Senate. 

October 17th. — President Grant issued a proclamation com- 
manding certain rifle companies, in South Carolina, to disband in 
three days. They disbanded. 

THE CENTENNIAL FOURTH OF JULY. 

The Fourth of July is the great secular holiday of our people, 
as it is of the whole nation, and in our local, social life, is a day of 
great importance. And it is because of this fact the annual cele- 
brations of the day have been noted through the course of this history. 
The day was appropriately commemorated, this year, at Blue Earth 
City. S. J. Abbott, of Winnebago City, read the Declaration, and 
S. W. Graham, of Blue Earth City, delivered the oration. The day 
was also celebrated at Delavan, where a large company had as- 
sembled, to do honor to the occasion. Here Andrew Carson read 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 423 

the Declaration, and D. F. Goodrich, of Blue Earth City, was the 
orator. At these two places were the only formal celebrations in 
the county. 

This being the one hundredth, or the Centennial celebration of 
American independence, the day was commemorated much more 
generally throughout the United States than usual, and in many 
places with extraordinary display. To appropriately signalize the 
great event, preparations had been made during several preceding 
years, for a World's Exposition, at Philadelphia, Penn., which 
opened on the tenth day of May, and closed on the tenth of Novem- 
ber, and on the fourth of July there was had, in that city, the most 
costly and magnificent celebration ever seen in America. The Cen- 
tennial Exposition was gotten up on the most extensive scale, and far 
surpassed all the world's fairs which had yet been held. It was in 
truth an exhibition of the natural and manufactured productions, 
the industries, the works of art of all nations, and there was gath- 
ered there people from all parts of the globe. 

The history of the exposition reads like a splendid romance, 
and it was in all respects, a fitting, a most magnificent celebration 
of the one hundredth anniversary of the nation's birth. 

Should you ask, what meant the midnight clamor and the sun- 
, rise salute of thundering cannon and ringing bells, and all the dis- 
play and demonstration to-day? The answer is, that this is the 
Fourth of July — the anniversary of the birthday of the nation — an 
event which is not a hazy myth, but a fact, and that the people all 
over this great nation, celebrate this, the most memorable event, of 
a political character, in its influences upon the destinies of mankind, 
that can be found in the records of this world's history. Yea, ver- 
ily, it looms up like a mountain, above all others. 

And we should have clear ideas of the nature, the character of 
this sublime event, for it was the occasion of a vast stride in hu- 
man progress made across the line which divides the ages of polit- 
ical and religious darkness, superstition, bigotry, despotism — the 
alleged divine and hereditary rights of rules and the slavery of the 
masses from the age of national freedom, freedom of opinion, of 
the press, of speech, of conscience, of education, of personal action, 
the age of the acknowledged equality of men in the eye of the law, 
in short, the age of civil and religious liberty and self government. 
For, it must be said, that the fourth day of July, 1776, was not only 
the birthday of a gi-eat nation, which then stepped forth on the 
world's great stage, to demand recognition, but it was also the occa- 
sion of the declaration of certain political principles, which form a 
new departure in governmental science, and which constitute, as all 
true Americans believe, the only true basis upon which to establish 
civil government — principles which through all the long, dreary ages 



424 BISTOJIY OF 

of despotism, men never dared to proclaim before, and which shall 
forever hereafter inure to the blessing of our people, and after a 
while, to that of all mankind. 

Read that declaration made on the fourth day of July, 1776, 
thoughtfully, and then tell us, student of history, at what other 
time and by what other body of men, or nation, or on what pages of 
the writers on political science, were the great truths announced, or 
more than vaguely suggested to the world, that are contained in 
that papery — The truth that all men are created equal, politically — 
that by their Creator they are endowed with certain inalienable 
rights, among which are, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness 
— that to secure these rights, governments are established — that 
government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed 
— that when any government becomes destructive of these ends, it 
is the right of the governed to alter or abolish it, and institute such 
government as will secure these rights, and the safety and happi- 
ness of the governed. No such declaration was ever made before. 
Never before did men dare to make it. For ages men had been 
struggling with an uncertain and ever failing eifort to give some 
expression to their longing for civil and religious liberty and secure 
the just recognition of their rights, and here at last, in this new 
world and in this declaration, made on that day, were these new 
principles formulated and proclaimed to the world. 

But those other princii^les of civil government which are ob- 
noxious to reason and to natural justice, and which have cursed the 
earth for ages, the Shibboleths of which are, the divine right of 
kings, of hereditary rulei's — of the unequal division of men into 
classes as to rights and privileges, some of whom, the very few, are 
to govern, and the others to serve and suffer — of jiractically unre- 
strained power on the one hand and implicit obedience and submis- 
sion on the other — the system of perpetual serveillance and espion- 
age on the part of the government and citizen, slavery and political 
degradation — the government everything, the people nothing — these, 
through all the past centuries have been the dogmas of civil gov- 
ernment. 

And it is fortunate, beyond estimate, that the American revo- 
lution produced a change in these, among the most important of all 
the affairs and interests of man. As a result of that great event, 
light broke in upon and hope dawned for the downtrodden and op- 
pressed millions of the earth, for those new and better principles of 
civil government, announced in the declaration and maintained by 
the revolution, recognizes man, as a being of certain rights and of 
equal political rights, in the eye of the law — that government is of 
right made by the people and for the people — not the people for the 
government. Here is the grand idea of law regulated liberty and 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 425 

citizen sovereignty, and in these few words is contained the whole 
philosophy of the science of civil government. And these great 
principles are not for us alone, for therein is that great thought and 
from thence is evoked that great force, which shall yet overcome 
all others and lead all nations at last to freedom. 

Victor Hugo says, of the great contest on the field of Waterloo, 
upon the result of which hung the destinies of Europe, that "it was 
not a battle merely, it was more, it was the change of front of the 
universe." So we say of the American revolution, with much more 
propriety, it was not a mere war — a mere revolution, it was more, 
it was the change of front of the universe, for in maintaining the 
truths of the declaration, it inaugurated an entirely new system of 
civil government. 

And these better principles are becoming recognized every- 
where, notwithstanding the strong bulwarks despotism has been 
everywhere raising against them. It is indeed but a narrow view 
that limits the beneficent influence of the great truths of the declar- 
ation and the results of the war of independence, to our own time 
and country. From the very day of the declaration, its great an- 
nouncements have helped to ameliorate the political condition of 
men in all lands — they have given hope to the oppressed in all 
countries — the shackles of the old iron-bound despotic systems of 
government are loosening, arbitrary power has heard the knell of 
doom, and the world now is moving forward, though slowly, yet, to 
tlie goal of political regeneration. Yes, the truths of that declara- 
tion will go forth to "all the world, have already gone forth, and will 
nerve the arm in the battle for liberty and right through all time to 
come, and while the thrones of tyrants and their kingdoms are 
crumbling to dust, they will live, the guiding light of mankind, in 
their struggles from wrong and despotism, to right and freedom. 

And now on this fourth of July, 1876, the first century of our 
national life has rolled away, and we stand to-day at the beginning 
of our second century, and the question is appropriate at this time, 
what haiS been the outgrowth and development of the great princi- 
ples of the Declaration and the fruits of the Revolution, as manifest- 
ed in the history of the nation, born one hundred years ago to-day? 
To answer this question it is not necessary to trace the history of 
the nation from the day of the Declaration to the present time. We 
need not recount the long years of suffering, the immensity of blood 
and treasure it cost to sustain the Declaration, nor need we speak 
of the constant success of the nation in war and the military glory 
and renown which render our annals glorious, for our greatest and 
best achievements, have been in the arts of peace. Let us summar- 
ize briefly — unlike any other nation, this republic came into existence 
an enlightened. Christian people; no long line of barbarous ancestry. 



426 HISTORY OF 

no ages of growth and development, shrouded in the gloom of 
heathenish despotism, superstition and blood. But at the moment 
the United Colonies were declared free and independent, they were 
behind none of the nations in the arts and blessings of civilization. 
The fathers and founders of the republic were a body of men, than 
whom, for great experience in the waysof life, in intellectual culture 
and sterling virtues, no superiors have ever appeared. This people, 
who at the time of the Declaration, consisted of thirteen small colon 
ies and three millions of souls, without commerce, without a name 
or a place among the nations of the earth, has grown to be a mighty 
nation, indeed. Thirty-eight great free states, eight or ten organ- 
ized territories, and nearly fifty millions of population. We have 
taken the place now of a tirst-class power of the earth. Our empire 
is almost a continent. We have a country possessing every variety 
of soil, every character of climate and all kinds of productions. We 
have thousands of miles of sea coast, great harbors, the longest rivers, 
railroads and canals in the world. Our commerce spreads its sails 
on every sea We have brought our manufactures to compete with 
the world, and we carry our goods and inventions and machinery to 
every country on the globe. Our people are industrious, intelligent, 
brave, progressive, and in their personal demeanor they are also 
frank, courteous, dignified and self-contained, orderly, yet fearless 
in any presence where they have the right to be. But this is not all. 
The extent of territory and the vastness of the population of a 
nation and its progress in material things, is not all that is wanted 
to make the nation great. We have something more to boast of. In 
the higher blessings, those of free government, the universal diffu- 
sion of knowledge, progress in the arts and sciences and literature, 
which find their best encouragement and development here, the free- 
dom of conscience, of opinion, of speech, of the press, and of personal 
action, we have no equal among the nations of the earth, and here 
withal, and as important as any of our blessings, labor is free and 
honored, and the ways of promotion are open to all alike, and the 
culmination of all these blessings is summed up in the announce 
ment, which we make to all the world, that we live to day in the 
light of the fullest, freest and most progressive and best civilization 
of all the ages. 

But, says the political philosopher of the old school, is all this 
permanent — will it last? 

The answer may be that we have passed safely' through all the 
chances and changes of a hundred years of experiment. We have, 
too, been tried in the fires of rebellion, we have withstood the flood 
of opposition and unfavorable criticism and braved the fury of 
political cyclones, such as have wrecked many of the nations of the 
past. Yet we still live, and are stronger to-day than ever before. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 427 

We may, too, rise to a hig:her view of this subject, and claim 
that by the decrees of the councils of heaven, there has been given 
to this nation a position, a work, a mission, the grandest that has 
ever been accorded to any nation of the earth, if we but remember 
that it is righteousness that exalts a nation^that of being the 
instrument of high heaven, in the final political redemption and re- 
generation of the nations of the earth, in these, the last centuries of 
the world's history. 

Such was the great event of the day — the fourth of July, 1776 — 
the anniversary of which we annually observe, and the outgrowth 
and results in the life of the nation, of the great principles of civil 
government proclaimed on that day. And it is not only the native 
born American who does honor to the day, for there assembles on 
these occasions the people of many nationalities, who have made 
this land their adopted home. The Scotchman, the Englishman, 
the Irishman, the Frenchman, the Scandinavian, the German, yea, 
representatives of the people of almost every land under the sun. 

Millions from all lands have come to America, and we bid them 
welcome. Let other millions of the intelligent, industrious, law- 
abiding and liberty-loving come. America wants them all. 

And herein lies one of the best assurances of the continued 
strength, prosperity and perpetuity of American institutions — in 
the infusion of the best blood of Europe, in American veins. In 
the union, assimilation and Americanization of the best brain and 
brawn of all nations making a wise, strong, free people, who shall 
never know mental or physical degeneracy. A people, who are at 
work, concentrating here, developing and making homogeneous, 
what is best in all the forms, phases, experiences, of the old world 
civilizations, in combination with the newer and better principles of 
government here. To these we can but say, ye are countrymen 
now, ever most welcome, in the scenes and festivities of this great 
anniversary. 

Well, indeed, may we celebrate this day with music, festivities 
and rejoicing, in the grove and in the temple, on the land and on the 
sea. And the voices of the long past come to us and admonish us 
not to forget it. Do you hear them? Hark! Floating on the mists 
of the long gone years there comes to us, the tones of a far off bell. 
Listen! It is the bell on old Independence Hall, pn the Fourth of 
July, 1776, proclaiming liberty to all the land and all the inhabitants 
thereof. Then ring, ring the bells on this day, over all the nation, 
long and loud. Fire your cannons from every hill top, they are but 
the echoes of the storm and thunder of battles, in which, long years 
ago, our forefathers shed 'there blood like water, that they and we 
might be free, and have a home and country. Yes, unfurl on this 
day the brave old flag — wreathe it about your doorposts, let it wave 



428 UlSTUHY OF 

from every housetop, let it head every procession, for in hundreds of 
battles, on land and sea, the soldiers of the Republic have followed 
it to victory. 

"Fla^riif the brave thy folds shall fly, 
The si^'n of hope and triumph high I" 

And we shall not forget it. So long as our people celebrate 
this day in spirit and in truth, so long our people shall be free, and 
he wears the visage of a traitor to his country and mankind, or 
wags the tongue of an idiot, who seeks to belittle the day, or mali- 
ciously ridicules its commemoration. As every passing year brings 
round the day, let it be remembered. It is the patriots' day, the 
children's day, observe it somehow, in the picnic, the excursion, 
the quiet walk in the fields, even«n the retreat to the shady grove. 
Had it no other significance, it is the peoples great secular holiday, 
when neighbors and friends from far and near meet for a good 
time — for recreation — to renew old friendships, to make new ones, 
and to cultivate sociability. But best of all is the old fashioned Fourth 
of July celebration. Let the procession be formed and the marshals 
ride to and fro, let the bands crash and the drums beat. Let the 
old Declaration be read, that the young be instructed in its truths, 
and the old forget them not. Let the orator raise his voice and soar 
aloft, if he chooses, on the wings of the eagle, full of glorification 
over the past and proud prophecies of "the future. What if his 
rhetoric is a little florid and his eloquence turgid. Who has a bet- 
ter right to boast than we'? And the old songs must be sung, 
"Yankeedoodle," "Hail Columbia Happy Land." and the "Star 
Spangled Banner." And let us have the skyrockets and the fire 
crackers, the lemonade and the ice cream and peanuts. Ring the 
bells, fire the guns, wave the flags! What matters the noise and 
bustle, the heat and dust on such a day as this. This is the age 
of steam and electricity, of iron, of great projects, of giant pow- 
der and grand achievements, and these loud demonstrations ex- 
press the genius of the nation and the spirit of the age. Under 
all these noisey manifestations lies the broad, deep meaning — 
the rejoicing of the freest, most generous and most progressive 
people on earth, in the deeds of their forefathers and their own 
success, in popular government. 

Let us turn from the past to the future. The first century of 
our national existence is now complete. Whatever the century was, 
the record is made up, and must remain forever, and, while there 
are a few, a very few. shadows resting upon the fair pages, yet, as 
we have seen, no other nation of the past, or present, can boast of 
such a century of existence. What of the future? We now enter 
upon the second century of our national life, and the only assurance 
of the future lies in avoiding the rocks on which other nations have 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 429 

split and gone down. A word will be pardoned here, as to the fu- 
ture of our beloved country, and we may speak not simply as a 
moralist, but as a citizen. As we read the history of the nations 
that have arisen and reigned and fell; as we scan the conditions 
of nations existing today, we learn first of all the two great causes 
of human misery, and n?^i\oxiaXva.\sfovi\\ne — ignorance and roickedness. 
This is the plain truth of all history, all observation. Remember- 
ing the thought and some of the language of one long since dead, 
we may bid you, if an inquirer for the proof of this assertion. — Com- 
mence your travel at the beginning of the highway of the ages, ascend 
to the summit of the last mountain that looms above the deluge, and 
looking down upon the lost nations of a drowned world, inquire the 
cause of the universal desolation, and the voice of the mighty waters 
will answer-ignorance and wickedness. Descend the stream of time, 
through all the generations that have lived and died, and as you 
pass the wrecks of a thousand empires, with the relics of their 
altars and dead gods around them, ask the cause of their ruin, and 
their mournful requiem answers — ignorance and wickedness. 

Look over the earth. Why are prostrate millions worshiping 
stars and wood and worms? Why are despots crushing out the 
hearts of weeping millions? Why is war devouring whole king- 
doms at a meal, and illumining the world with lakes of blood, and 
cities on fire? Why does intemperance fill the world with widows 
and orphans, and stock the land with drunkards graves? Why do 
falsehood and fraud and theft and murder pour their poison streams 
throughout the earth? Because of ignorance and wickedness. 

It was long ago said that the safety of Republics rests in the intel- 
ligence and virtue of the j)eople, not, certainly, in their ignorance 
and wickedness. Herein there lies the best assurance of the future. 
Let us learn, and learn well, what we can of true knowledge our- 
selves, and especially let us educate our children. If we can give 
them no other inheritance, let us give them the best of all endow- 
ments — a liberal education, that education which unchains the fac- 
ulties, liberates, informs and strengthens the mind. 

To this end let us ever guard well and constantly improve our 
free schools and public systems of education, and encourage the 
higher institutions of learning. And we must permit no sophistries, 
no craft, or threats to beguile us. We must cherish them as the 
apple of the eye. We must, too maintain a free press, and never 
allow any censorship to clog its utterance of truth. But this is not 
all, intellectual culture will not suffice. Intellectual power and im- 
morality are worse than ignorance and wickedness. We must have 
also, moral training, and this is the chiefest interest. We must lay 
broad and deep the principles of morality and religion. Let us 
impress it indelibly upon the minds of the young, and by our 



430 HISTORY OF 

personal example enforce the truth, that there is no safety, no as- 
surance of individual happiness, or of national stability and true 
glory, but in the maintenance of the laws of right, the practice of 
justice and the acknowledgment and recognition of God and His 
lawg. A full and complete intellectual development, combined with 
sound moral principles and practices, constitutes the only true edu- 
cation. It is this that makes the man — the man that is made in the 
image of God — great, true, strong, of high and honorable mind, of 
noble impulses and generous heart, "the considerate husband, the 
indulgent, judicious parent, the true friend, the wise counsellor" 
and the lover and protector of his country, and the pure, patient, 
wise, tender, loving woman, fit to be the mother of freemen and the 
instructor of American youth. 

Ever acknowledging God, in whose hands are the destinies of all 
people, and that it is righteousness that exalts a nation, let us 
cherish a deep and abiding love for our country, glorious in its his- 
tory and achievements, grander still in the destinies that await it. 
Let the children of the Republic be taught, that next to God and 
home and honor, and as inseparably entwined with them, to love 
their country, its laws and institutions, then in the days of its peril 
its defenders will be many and invincible, and we shall transmit our 
political blessings to the latest posterity, as we received them from 
our fathers, the noblest inheritance of man. And now with these 
assurances, what a destiny awaits thee. Oh! beloved land? We look 
through the veils that hide the future to the close of this second 

century. 

"Behold the unsealed vision, 
To this glorious prospect rise." 

Proud old Babylon— Medo- Persia— Grecia, Rome, 

What were your glories of universal empire here I 

.Sesostris, Alexander, Ciesar, Constantino, 

Charlemagne, Napoleon, how weak yovir wildest dreams of universal rule! 

Behold here! an empire embracing a continent — more than two 
hundred millions of people, free, united, brave, generous and just, 
masters of all arts, learned in all sciences, practiced in all virtues — 
the arbiters of the world's destinies— the chosen people of God. 

"Columbia! Columbia! to glory arise, 
The queen of the work), the child of the skies. 
Thy genius commands thee, with rapture heboid. 
As ages on ages thy glories unfold." 

.SECURING THE CEREALS. 

The harvest weather was very favorable and the crops were 
secured in good husbandlike manner. All the crops were fairly 
abundant, except that of wheat, which was hardly a two thirds yield. 
Throughout the State, the crop of wheat was called a failure. There 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 431 

were three causes which led to the reduced aggregate production in 
the State, all three of which had their influences in this county — 
heat, drouth and the locusts. These causes also effected other crops 
to a considerable extent. 

The summer was very warm and in some localities quite dry. 
More people, especially in the cities, lost their lives by sun-stroke, 
than had ever before been known in a summer, and many children, 
in the large cities, died of the great heat. Haying, after harvest, 
was much interfered with by the rains, and much poor hay was put 
up. 

FRUITS. 

All kinds of tame and wild fruits were, as in the preceding 
year, very abundant. There were probably more apples raised in 
the county this year than ever before. Thus it is that while condi- 
tions are favorable on one hand, they are deleterious on the other, 
and the general equilibrium of years is kept up. But what was there 
to make up for locust depredations? 

THE SCOURGE. 

On the eighteenth day of August, that terrible scourge, the 
grasshoppers visited this county again, lighting down in myriads. 
' They came on a northwest wind, and spread over a large part of the 
county. They had already, immediately before reaching us, this year, 
invaded the whole west half of the State, and laid their eggs. They 
did but little damage to crops in this county during this year, but 
their presence here, the fact that they had laid their eggs here, 
and the doleful prospects for the next year, seriously affected busi- 
ness of all kinds, and much discouraged the people. 

After deiiositing their eggs, vast numbers of the grasshoppers 
arose, and left about the twenty -fifth day of the month. 

In consequence of the presence of the grasshoppers and the 
vast deposit of eggs and the general wish of the people that some 
public action should be taken to protect the country, if possible, 
from their ravages, a number of public meetings were held in vari- 
ous localities. During the early part of September, a grasshopper 
convention (not a convention of grasshoppers for they had already 
met), assembled in the town of Verona, to consider the situation. 
Resolutions were adopted in relation to the best methods of fighting 
the "hoppers," and an organization aifected. The farmers, also, of 
the towns of Lura, Barber, Walnut Lake and Minnesota Lake, met 
at Easton, and formed a grasshopper club, and adopted certain reso- 
lutions, not exactly against the grasshoppers, but as to the most 
feasible methods of destroying them. 

And on the nineteenth day of September, the board of county 
commissioners met in special session and took action in relation to 



432 UISTOllY Ot 

this subject. They offered a reward of fifty dollars for the arrest and 
conviction of any one who should fire the prairies, in violation of 
the statute laws. They also appropriated the sum of three hundred 
dollars to defray the expense of making fire-breaks around the 
county, on or near, the county lines, in order to prevent prairie fires 
in the adjoining territory, from running into the county. The man- 
ner of making these firebreaks was that of plowing, or mowing, two 
strips of land, not less than six rods apart and burning the grass 
between. They also recommended that no fires be set out in the 
county, and that all the straw and waste hay be saved to be strewn 
on grounds wiiere the locusts had deposited their eggs. Now what 
had all this to do with the grasshoppers V Well this, it was the de- 
sign that after the pests had hatched out in the spring and were 
young and still unable to fly, to burn over the prairies and other 
lands where the pests should appear, and thus destroy them. 

THE NORTHFIELD TRAGEDY. 

In the early part of September, great excitement existed 
throughout the State, in consequence of an attempt made by certain 
outlaws— the Younger brothers and others — to rob the bank in that 
place. Pew crimes, probably, ever created more excitement than 
this, and there are but few instances of greater bravery known than 
that exhibited by the small company of men who secured the out- 
laws. A number of the citizens of this county went in pursuit of 
the robbers on the grand hunt, and for several nights guards were 
stationed at the bridges on the main stream of the Blue Earth river, 
and several other places, in the county, to intercept the fleeing 
murderers should they pass this way. 

The Younger brothers — three of them — were finally caught, 
tried, convicted, and sentenced to the State prison for life. 

NOW TAKE YOUR CHOICE OF TICKETS. 

The political campaign of this year was a long and exciting one, 
both nationally and locally. 

Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, for President, and William A. 
Wheeler, of New York, for Vice President, were the Republican can- 
didates, and Samuel J. Tilden, of New Ycrk and Thomas A. Hend- 
ricks, of Indiana, were the Democi-atic candidates for President and 
Vice President. 

Peter Cooper, of New York, for President, and Samuel F. Gary, 
of Ohio, for Vice President, were the candidates of the Greenback 
Party . 

A congressman for this district was also to be elected, and Mark 
H. Dunnell, of Steel county was nominated by the Rejjublicans, and 
E. C. Stacy, of Freeborn county, by the Democrats. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 433 

Let us now turn to our county politics. The Republican County- 
Convention was held at Blue Earth City, on the thirtieth day of 
September. Geo. W. Plumley, of Wells, was chosen chairman, and B. 
G. Reynolds, of Winnebago City, secretary. The following nomina- 
tions were made: 

For Representatives— S. P. Childs, of Blue Earth City, and An- 
drew C. Cunn, of Winnebago City. 

For Auditor— W. W. White. 

For Register of Deeds— F. P. Brown. 

For Clerk of Court— H. J. Neal. 

For Superintendent of Schools— J. A. Dean. 

For Surveyor — E. S. Leavitt. 

For Coroner — A. B. Balcom. 

For County Commissioner 3d District — J. R. Sisson. 

The Democratic County Convention was held at Blue Earth 
City. October 7lh, but adjourned sine die, without making any nomi- 
nations, but on the fourteenth of the same month a People's Con- 
vention was held at Blue Earth City, for the purpose of placing 
candidates in the field. D. P. Wasgatt. of Winnebago City, was 
elected chairman, and H. E. Mayhew, of Delavan, secretary,- of this 
meeting, whereupon tlie following nominations were made: 

H. H. Gilman, of Winnebago City, and L. W. Brown, of Pres- 
cott, were named as candidates for Representatives. 

Arthur Bonwell, for Auditor. 

Frank Lent, for Register of Deeds. 

Wesley Hill, for Clerk of Court. 

Richard W. Richards, for Superintendent of Schools. 

Geo. A. Weir, for Surveyor. 

A. S. Mygatt, for Coroner. 

Robert Andrews, for County Commissioner 3d District. 

Several resolutions on reductions of official salaries and other 
subjects relating to retrenchment and reform, were adopted. 

This presidential campaign and election was a peculiar and ex- 
asperating one, in many respects, and owing to the close, in fact, 
uncertain electoral vote, the excitement and bitterness was con- 
tinued into the next year, when the question as to who was elected, 
was finally determined in a novel manner. 

In the local campaign, the canvassing of the county was quite 
lively, and public meetings were held in almost all the towns, by the 
republican legislative candidates. 

The final results will be found in the following table of votes 
for the several candidates. 

For Presidential Electors: Hayes, 1,591; Tilden, 605. 

For Congressman: Dunnell, 1,532; Stacy, 727. 



434 lll^TOltY OF 

For Representatives: Child, 1,585; Dunn, 887; Oilman. 1,368 
Brown, 583. 

For Auditor: White. 1.432; Bonwell, 820. 

For Commissioner 3d District. Sisson was elected. 

For Superintendent of Schools: Dean, 792; Richards. 1,459. 

For Clerk of Court: Neal, 2,241. 

For Register: Brown. 1.893; Lent. 353. 

For Surveyor: Leavitt. 1,168; Weir, 1.062. 

For Coroner: Balcom. 1.215; Robertson, 491; Mygatt, 521. 

WELL SAID. 

"An excellent as well as witty reproof, which might be applicable to some 
politician.s even in these enlightened days, is accredited to the celebrated 
Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 

"When his son, Thomas Sheridan, was a candidate for an ortice of a Cornish 
borough, he told his father that if he secured the otBce he had a mind to place 
a label on his forehead with the words 'To Let' printed on it, and side with the 
party which made the test offer. 

" 'Very well, Tom,' replied his father dryly, 'but if you do tliat, don't forget 
to add the word 'unfurnisked.' " 

AGRICULTURE AND FINANCES. 

The annual fair of the agricultural society was held at Blue 
Earth City on the 12th and 13th days of October. For various rea- 
sons it proved almost a failure. The crops were short, money scarce, 
the outlook for the coming year, gloomy. 

The fair of the Blue Earth Valley Blooded Stock Association, 
held at Winnebago City on the 18th. lyth and 20th of the same 
month, was also a failure, for the reasons given above, and the ad- 
ditional one of bad weather. 

Toward the close of the year, the financial condition of the 
people began to improve, somewhat, in this county. There was not 
so much borrowing of money and mortgaging, as formerly, and 
farmers began to turn their attention, more, to stock raising. 

The sales of cattle and hogs began to yield considerable returns, 
and wheat, late in the year. brought a dollar per bushel, and was still 
higher after New Years. 

Thus the benefits of diversified farming became apparent, and 
the result was the inauguration of a new era too long delayed in 
this county. 

A FOX HUNT. 

On Saturday, November 11th, the first English fox hunt which 
probably had ever occurred in this State, took place in Martin 
county, adjoining this on the west, and attracted much attention. A 
number of the citizens of this county attended and took part in the 
hunt. It proved quite a success, and afforded a great deal of sport. 



FAIUBACLT COI'NTY, MINNESOTA. 435 

It was inaugurated by the English residents of that county who 
desired to see and enjoy one of the great recreations of "Merrie Old 
England," in this new land. 

A NEW BOOK. 

In December of this year a small book appeared, bearing the 
title "Politicians and other poems/' by H. W. H., of which the Pion- 
eer Press says : 

"These iaitals in the title stand for Hon. Henry W. Holley, of Winnebago 
City, in this State, who is better l<nown to the public as an editor, legislator, 
civil engineer and railroad superintendent, than as a poet, though his produc- 
tions have frequently appeared in the local press of the State, and have found 
many admirers. 'Politicians and other Poems,' is an elegant voluran of 126 
pages, dedicated 'to Hon. William Windom, United States (Senator from Min- 
nesota, v?hose public life stands in marked contrast to all that is satarized in 
these pages.' The title poem is now printed for the first time, and we are sure 
that all who know the author will be impatient to read this splendid satire on 
the political tricksters of the day. It is full of vivacity, wit, humor and sar- 
casm, and yet not palpably personal— that is, not intended to strike a blow at 
any particular individual. The minor poems, seventeen in number, are equally 
meritorious, and the volume as a whole, will not only enhance the author's rep- 
utation at home, but should give him rank among the poets of the nation, not 
below that enjoyed by Saxe, whose style is not dissimilar to Mr. Holley's. 

Mr. Holley has the honor of being the first resident of this 
county, who had written and published a book. 

He was the author also of another small volume of poems, en- 
titled "Moods and Emotions,'' published in 1855, and also a small 
pamphlet entitled "Wliat 1 Think" — .1 Satire, published is 1859. 

Henry Whitcomb Holley, was born at Pierrepont Manor, Jeffer- 
son county. New York on the fifth of May, 1828. He received his 
education at Union Academy, Belleville, in his native county and at 
Norwich University, Vermont, a college for engineers, from which 
latter institution he graduated in 1849. He spent seven years as a 
civil engineer on railroads, soon after his graduation. He was mar- 
ried to Miss Eliza J. Christie, of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, November 5th, 
1855. They have had six children, all of whom are living, but one. 

In 1856 Mr. Holley settled in Minnesota, locating at Chatfield, 
Fillmore county. For several years he edited the Chatfield ''Repub- 
lican," quite an influential paper in the politics of the State at the 
time. 

He was a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1857, and 
represented the ninth district, in the senate in the second, and the 
fourteenth district in the third legislature of the State. In 1861 he 
was appointed receiver at the United States Land Office, and came 
to this county, locating at Winnebago City, the seat of the land office, 
where he has ever since resided. He held this office eight years. 
He was one of the incorporators of the Southern Minnesota Railroad 



436 HISTOIiY OF 

Company, and in 18(55 became the chief engineer of the road. He 
was connected with the road until 1874. being, during the last four 
years, general manager and superintendent. 

He became a republican at the formation of the party and still 
adheres to it. For a time since his residence in this county, he was 
the editor of the ''Free Homestead." published at Winnebago City. 

He is- one of the largest farmers in the county, and one of the 
most successful. Though taking a great interest in politics in early 
life, he has of late years paid but little attention to the subject, ex- 
cept to keep well informed as to the political events of the time, and 
to vote. 

For manyyears Mr. Holley has devoted much of his spare time 
to literary pursuits. We have taken the liberty, during the course 
of this history, to quote frequently from his writings, and always 
with advantage to our work. 

Since tlie above brief sketch was written, Mr. Holley removed 
to the state of Washington. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 437 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

A. D. 1877. 

The first leading event of this year, and one which called to- 
gether a large number of the people, was the winter term of the 
district court. It was appropriate enough that the year should be- 
gin with the work of our highest local judicial tribunal, in the appli- 
cation of the principles of justice, to the settlement of the disputes 
and difficulties of the people. The court began its session January 
2d — Hon. D. A. Dickinson, presiding. There was but one criminal 
case on the calendar. The civil cases numbered thirty-three. The 
term lasted but three days. There were no cases of special public 
interest. It may as well be added here, that the June term of the 
court commenced its session on the fifth day of the month — Hon. D. 
A. Dickinson, presiding, and the term lasted six days. The civil 
calendar noted thirty-five cases, the criminal calendar not one, and 
no grand jury was called to sit on the grand inquest, at this term, a 
very unusual circumstance. The absence, too, of criminal business, 
was an encouraging sign of the times. But it was not so everywhere. 

In many localities great destitution and suffering existed, and 
strikes, riots, mobs, bloodshed, and the perpetration of many crimes 
prevailed to a large extent. 

THE COUNTY'S GUARDIANS. 

During this year the commissioners held seven meetings. They 
assembled January 2d, March 6th, March 15th, April 23d, July 16th, 
October 2d, and November 8th. At the January meeting, the board 
organized by electing P. W. Temple, chairman for the year. There 
was no business transacted during the year, out of the ordinary 
course, except the action taken at the April meeting, which is noted 
hereafter. It may be named, however, that a large amount of 
money was again appropriated, during the year, for the building of 
bridges. 

THE LAWGIVERS. 

The nineteenth state legislature assembled at St. Paul, January 
2d, and adjourned March 2d. This county was well represented in 
that august body, at this session. 



438 HISTORY OF 

J. P. West appeared as our representative in the Senate Chamber 
and S. P. Child and H. H. Gilman in the House. 

James B. Wakefield, Lieut. Governor, presided over the delib- 
erations of the Senate, and in the House we had Geo. W. Buswell, 
as Chief Clerk. Charles A. Kose was Serfjeant-atarms of the 
Senate, and James M. Robertson, a Senate Messenger, while Thos. 
H. Webb held the position of Restaurantuer in the rotunda of the 
Capitol. Our county could not well complain of not being "recog- 
nized" at this session. 

The legislation of this year, having special relation to this 
county was comi^rised in the following acts: 

An act to incorporate the village of Delavan. 

An act to atucrul the act to incorporate the village of Minnesota Lake. 

An act to amend the act to incorporate the village of Winnebago City. 

An act to authorize the village of Minnesota Lake to issue bonds for the 
purpose of paying for the location of a depot, in said village. 

An act to prohiliit fishing in Bass lake, except by hook and line. 

An act to detach certain territory from School District No. 14, and to attach 
the same to District No. 58. 

Mr. Windom was re-elected United States senator at this 
session. 

The people of this county, especially the older and more perma- 
nent residents, have, from the first, manifested a strong attachment 
for, and loyalty to the county, audits fair fame, and have taken a 
well grounded pride in its character, standing and progress. Its 
people have never deemed it necessary to take a back seat, anywhere, 
further than a due regard for the proprieties seemed to require. 
And this is in some degree warranted by the facts that our county 
has, in a number of instances, proved to be the banner county of 
the State — our rapid progress in population, productions and wealth 
— the number of our citizens who have held high official positions in 
the State, and in the governing bodies of great social and fraternal 
organizations, and in the sessions of our State legislature. And 
here the words of the poet Halleck are not far from appropriate. 

"They love their land because it is their own, 
And scorn to give aught other reason why; 
Would shake hands with a King upon his throne, 
And think it kindness to his majesty: 
A stubborn race, fearing and flattering none, 
Such are they nurtured, and such they live and die." 

THE FARMERS AND STOCKMEN. 

The Agricultural Society held its regular annual meeting Janu- 
ary 2d. The officers elected for the year were L. W. Brown, of 
Prescott. president; Wm. M. Scott, secretary, and D. B. Thurston, 
treasurer, and this was the only business of importance transacted. 
In this connection, the fact may now be noted, that the Second An- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 439 

nual Fair of the Blooded Stock Association, was appointed to be 
held at Winnebago City, on the 20th, 21st and 22d days of Septem- 
ber and a tine premium list was published. The exhibition of stock 
at the fair was very good, and the fair was a moderate success. The 
annual fair of the agricultural society, was held at Blue Earth City, 
on the 11th, 12th and 13th days of October. But owing to the late 
date in the year of holding this fair, and because of some other mat- 
ters, the fair, of this year, was not a great success, though far from 
a failure. 

THE WEATHER. 

During the latter half of January and through the greater por- 
tion of February, the weather was very fine. The following item is 
clipped from the Post of February 24th. 

"For thirty days past we have enjoyed delightful weather. The sun has 
shone every day. The thermometer has ranged up among the sixties and seven- 
ties, and only nights has it been cold enough to freeze. Such a long spell of 
delightful weather has never been witnessed at this season of the year, as at the 
present. The roads have been dry and dusty, and the wheeling excellent. 
Farmers are getting ready to sow grain; some have already done so. The frost 
is out of the ground for a depth of six inclies. Laboring men traverse the 
streets in their shirt sleeves in search of linen pants, and 'kerchiefs' to wipe the 
prespiration from their 'noble brows.' Beautiful ladies,, elegantly attired in 
summer costume, having thrown aside their furs, promenade the walks, and 
their bewitching smiles tell us that we 'don't got some more winter for a little 
vile.' Oh, ye eastern croackers who think that Minnesota can't grow 'cawn,' 
and are wallowing through forty-four feet of snow, come up here where you can 
take off your winter clothes and cool yourselves in the summer sun." 

And here is another item of the same tenor, taken from another 
paper: 

"We have heard of several farmers who put in wheat last week, in this vi- 
cinity. In our exchanges, also, we see similar notices to this. We believe this 
is the earliest wheat sowing in the history of the State, though, on one or two 
previous occasions, it has been put in during the latter part of February."' 

Mai'ch, however, proved a winter month. Considerable snow 
fell, and we had some stormy weather. 

WHO IS PRESIDENT AND WHY. 

Intense excitement and anxiety existed during January, Feb- 
ruary and a part of March, throughout the whole country, in refer- 
ence to the result of the presidential election. The whole matter 
was now in congress, and owing to the condition of the electoral 
vote, it was found to be impossible to settle the matter, as to which 
of the candidates had been elected, president and vice president, by 
the ordinary method, and hence, after much contention, and the 
making of many grave threats, congress, by agreement, established 
what was known as the electoral commission, consisting of five 



440 HISTOKY <)F 

judges of the supreme court of the United States, five senators and 
five representatives, to whom all contested points were submitted. 
Their decision was to be final. The commission reported on all 
disputed questions, and the result was that Hayes and Wheeler had 
a majority of the electoral vote.s, and were accordingly declared 
elected president and vice president. Politically, this commission 
stood seven democrats to eight republicans. The report gave the 
disputed states to the republicans by eight votes for, to seven against. 
This event was a dangerous crisis in the history of the nation, and 
came near resulting in troublous times. 

And indeed the outlook for the new president was ominous, and 
if there ever was a time when the following beautiful prayer for the 
president, uttered occasionally by millions of our citizens, was 
especially appropriate, this was the occasion. 

"O God of might, wisdom and justice! through whom authority is rightly 
administered, laws enacted and judgment decreed, assist our president, we 
beseech Thee, with Thy holy spirit of counsel and fortitude, that his adminis- 
tration may be conducted in righteousness and be eminently useful to Thy 
people over whom he presides, hy encouraging due respect for virtue and re- 
ligion, by a faithful execution of the laws of justice andMuercy, and by restrain- 
ing vice and immorality. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." 

EXIT — THE WELLS GAZETTE — ENTRE THE WELLS ADVOCATE. 

The (razetfe ceased to be published with the issue of March 22d, 
or about that time, but on the 19th of April thei-e arose from the 
ashes of the Gazette, The Wcllx Advocate, a seven column paper — 
foreign internals, domestic externals. 

THE WORK OF THE SOWERS. 

With the exception of the small percentage of seeding done in 
P'ebruary. sowing generally commenced in this county, about the 
ninth day of April— the higher grounds, being in excellent condi- 
tion and the work was done up rapidly and well. Yet the fear of 
grasshopper depredations was distressing. There appeared to be 
nothing left, but to take the risk. In view of this danger, however, 
the farmers ordered a large quantity of field peas for seed, a plant 
but little molested by grasshoppers. There were about one thous- 
and bushels of peas brought into the county, for this purpose. An- 
other plant known by the name of Pampas, and said to be. in the 
current language of the time, "hopper proof," was planted, to some 
extent. 

A brief item here as to prices, may not be uninteresting. Wheat 
at the railroad markets brought, in April !?1.1j to fl.25. oats 30 
cents, corn 50 cents, potatoes 50 cents, beans it'1.00. peas !?2.00 per 
bushel and ttour ii>3.50 per hundred. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 441 

THE LAST OF THE LOCUSTS. 

The vast deposit of grasshopper eggs throughout a large por- 
tion of the State, the preceding year, was a matter of such grave 
public importance, that the legislature of this year, in its efforts to 
do something for the relief of the public, passed a very curious and 
impracticable act. 

The act was entitled "An act to provide for the destruction of 
grasshoppers and their eggs," and provided for the payment of cer- 
tain bounties for destroying the same, as follows: 

The sum of one dollar, per bushel, for grasshoppers caught 
previous to the twenty fifth day of May. The sum of fifty cents, 
per bushel, from May 25th to the tenth day of June. The sum of 
twenty-five cents, per bushel, fi-om the tenth day of June to the first 
day of July and twenty cents per bushel, from said first day of July, 
to the first day of October. There was also to be paid the sum of 
fifty cents per gallon, for all grasshopper eggs taken and destroyed. 
The act appropriated one hundred thousand dollars, to pay these 
bounties. It also required that all persons liable to work on roads, 
in each township, should be assessed a number of days labor, not 
to exceed five, to be employed, under the direction of the overseers 
of highways, in destroying eggs and locusts. A measurer was to 
be appointed in each township, by the Governor of the State, who 
was to be paid by the several counties. It was made his duty to 
receive and measure tlie grasshoppers and their eggs, brought to 
him, keep an account of the same and by whom delivered, and to 
give a certificate to the person delivering the same, of the amount 
thereof. All this looked very fair on its face, but a close inspec- 
tion of the facts and circumstances involved, revealed a very differ- 
ent aspect and results. 

At the April session of the county board, after a careful exam- 
ination of the matter, the board concluded that if this law should go 
into effect, and the measurers be appointed by the governor, as con- 
templated in the act the cost to this county alone could not be less 
than one hundred thousand dollars should the locusts apjjear as ap- 
prehended, and that of the one hundred thousand dollars, appropri- 
ated by the State, this county would not get to exceed four or five 
thousaud dollars as its projiortional share. They, therefore, re- 
quested the governor not to make the appointment of measurers, 
in this county. They were not made, nor were the labor assess- 
ments made, and the act, in nowise, went into effect in this county, 
and such was the fact not only in this county but throughout the 
State. The law was a dead letter. Had it gone into effect in most 
of the counties affected by grasshoppers, it would have entailed a 
burden of indebtedness upon them, which would have far exceeded 
in damage, all the depredations of the pests. 



442 HISTOIiV or 

And now in pursuance of this same subject, that of the locust 
scourge, it may be stated, that the twenty-sixth day of April was 
appointed by proclamation of the governor, and was observed in 
this county, as throughout the State, as a daj' of fasting and of 
prayer to Almighty God, that in mercy. He would relieve the peo- 
ple of the State from this threatened calamity. 

In the volume of the book it is written: 

"A fruitful land luaketh He barren, for the wickedness of theiu that dwell 
therein." Ps. cvii:34. 

"Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee and thou shall 
glorify Me." Ps.,l:15. 

".Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the 
inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the 
Lord." Joel, i:14. 

"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, 
to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break 
every yoke?" Isaiah, lviii:6. 

Millions of the eggs hatched out, throughout the infested por- 
tions of the State, yet, owing to some inscrutable causes, the pe- 
culiar character of the weather, the frosts, rains, freezing of the 
ground, the hatching was very irregular, and at intervals, and, 
doubtless, myriads of eggs rotted in the ground, and the young, at 
various stages of development., perished by millions, and with the 
exception of certain small districts of the State, no very material 
injury was done to the crops. Those locusts which attained full 
size, and there were some such over all the infested districts, ap- 
peared to be feeble and degenerate, and they, about the twentieth 
day of July, arose and left this portion of the State. The following 
item from a newspaper, well describes this last great exodus. 

"Last Friday was a day of great suspense to the people of this section of 
country. About half-past nine in the morning the 'hoppers commenced flying 
with a good breeze carrying them a little east of south. Never before in the 
memory of man were so many 'hoppers seen in the air at one time. It was one 
dense mass of locusts as far as the eye could see upward, and it took them until 
three o'clock in the afternoon to pass over. These were hours of deep suspense 
to the people. All business was abandoned and the flight of the destroying 
hosts watched with bated breath and weary eye. Hy two o'clock we all began 
to breathe easier, as it was noticed that none had cume down, but that nearly 
everyone of the resident'hoppers had risen and joined the marchingcolumn.and 
when night came it was safe to conclude that the 'hopper raid in Minnesota 
was at an end. It was a glorious feeling of relief, and thousands of prayers of 
thanksgiving were olTered up that night. They are gone, where, at this writing, 
we know not. and our people are embued with new life. The crops will be care- 
fully taken care of, and every acre of ground possible will be put in good condi- 
sion to receive the seed next year. Real estate will advance in value, business 
will revive, and with the stock now in the country, we can see the brilliant fu- 
ture just ahead of us.'' 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 443 

And considering the myriad millions of the locusts that passed 
over at this time, in high, and steady flight, and with army like 
regularity, one might well surmise that the hosts were led that day 
by old Apollyon, the king of the locusts, himself. For some reason, 
the impression prevailed, generally, among the people, that this was 
the last we should see of the grasshoppers, and that we should not 
again be troubled with them, during this generation, if ever. It re- 
mains but to add, on the subject, that it was in this year, that that 
simple, but most effective instrument for the destruction of grass- 
hoppers, "the hopper-dozer," was invented, and used, and for a full 
account of which, the reader is referred to the history of the year 
1874, "We are now done with the locust invasion, one of the greatest 
calamities which has yet befallen the State. 

THE SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 

The County Sunday School Association held its annual meeting at 
Winnebago City this year, on the twenty-ninth and thirtieth days of 
May. The attendance was quite large, and the interest manifested 
in the business and in the discussion of the questions proposed, was 
very considerable. At no former meeting were more questions pro- 
posed for consideration and discussed than at this. The report of 
the proceedings at this meeting occupy nearly two and a half col- 
umns of the newspapers of the county. 

The officers elected for the ensuing year were: O O. Odel. presi- 
dent. J. L. Christie, secretary, and James Damon, treasurer. 

THE PEOPLE SPEAK AGAIN. 

An election was held throughout the state on the twelfth day of 
June, on the question of the adoption of a proposed amendment to 
the coQstitution, providing for the application, of certain five hun- 
dred thousand acres of improvement lands belonging to the State, 
in payment of the old Minnesota state railroad bonds. The vote in 
this county stood two hundred and sixty-nine in favor and one 
thousand and twenty-nine against the proposition. There was a 
majority of forty-one thousand eight hundred and fifty- two agaiast 
the amendment, in the State. 

railroads! railroads! ! 

Several railroad companies were organized in the county during 
the early part of this year, one at Blue Earth City, named "the Blue 
Earth Valley Railroad Company, "organized in February and March, 
and one at Winnebago City, named "the Winnebago City and St. Paul 
Railroad Company," oi-ganized in May and June. "Bonuses" to aid 
in the building of roads, were again voted in several towns, and late 
in the year votes were taken in a number of towns, to extend the 



444 HISTORY OF 

time given in former resolutions, jjranling bonuses. In June, the 
county was visited by an individual in the Interests of a narrow 
guage road, to be constructed forthwith. Starting at Des Moines, 
the capital of Iowa and running thence northward through this 
county, to Hutchinson, in McLeod county, in this State. While this 
project was deemed a favorable one, no action was taken in refer- 
ence to it, and nothing further was ever heard of it. 

Attention may also be called to the fact, that the time limited to 
the Southern Minnesota Railroad Company — ten years — to construct 
their road to the western boundary of the State, had expired, the 
road having been completed only as far west as Winnebago City, in 
this county. 

Of the original grant of lands to the old company, there yet re- 
mained many thousands of fertilejacres, unearned by the company, 
and which reverted to the State. And now, with an eye to securing 
these lands, there came to the front the great railroad project of the 
year, which was the organization of the St. James and Fort Dodge 
Railroad Company and the Martin County Railroad Company, which 
were essentially one. The purpose of the one was to build a road 
from Winnebago City westward, into Martin county, and of the 
other, to build a road from St. James, in Watonwan county, via Blue 
Earth City to Fort Dodge in Iowa. Grading was done from Winne- 
bago City westward and from Blue Earth City in a northwest direc- 
tion (towards St James), some seven or eight miles during the sum- 
mer. The parties who had the matter in hand, were probably act- 
ing in good faith, but the whole project failed, because, as it was 
alleged, certain persons who had agreed to assist in putting down 
the ties and iron, when the grading should be done, proved treach- 
erous and failed to do as they agreed Several of our citizens lost 
considerable sums in consequence of the abandonment of the pro- 
ject. 

Next followed a new company, which was organized at "Winne- 
brgo City, October 27th, of this year, named "the South-Western 
Railroad Company." with the purpose of securing the forfeited 
lands and building the road westward from Winnebago City to the 
west line of the State, and a collateral line or two north and south. 
To this company some reference will be made in the history of the 
next year. 

And we may now close this brief and imperfect sketch of the 
railroad affairs of that year, by the I'eraark. that of the worlc done 
that year, there remains only some miles of dilapidated grading, 
dimly stretching across the prairies, and the companies organized 
that year have all passed into oblivion. 

"All scatteri'd tires but end in wind and noise. 
The scorn (if men, the idle play of boys." 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 445 

THE lOlST PATRIOTISM EFFERVESCING. 

The "Fourth of July" was celebrated in old fashioned stj'le at 
Wells, where J. M. Nye read the Declaration and M. W. Green 
delivered the oration. Winnebago City, also had a celebration, and 
here S. J. Abbott was the reader of the Declaration, and M. S. 
Wilkinson was the orator. 

The people of Blue Earth City were equally patriotic, and cele- 
brated the day in the usual manner. C. H. Slocum was the reader 
and Daniel F. Goodrich delivered the addi-ess. Lastly, at Bass 
Lake, in the town of Delavan, in the beautiful grove of ancient oaks, 
overlooking the crystal waters of the placid lake, the good people 
for many miles around, assembled to commemorate the day, and here 
Andrew Carson was the reader of the immortal charter of human 
rights, and J. A. Kiester, of Blue Earth City, addressed the people. 

The celebration of the day in so many prominent localities, ab 
all of which were large assemblages of our citizens, made the day a 
conspicuous one in the events of the year. 

"There is no other land like thee, 

No clearer shore; 

Thou art the shelter of the free, 
. The home, the port of liberty 

Thou hast been, and shalt ever be 

Til time is o'er." — Fercival. 

LACONICS. 

That the reader may be able to fully identify this year, we note 
a few great leading events of the times, outside of our county 
limits. 

On the twenty- fourth day of April, war was declared by Russia 
against Turkey. 

On July 16- 19, a memorable strike of railroad employes occurred, 
which extended to nearly all the roads of the northern states. They 
greatly interfered with railroad traffic. Great" riots took place at 
Baltimore and Pittsburg, and much property was destroyed and 
some blood shed. Troops were called out to suppress the rioters. 

On the fifteenth day of September, Louis A. Thiers, an eminent 
French statesman and ex-president of the French Republic died. 

Hon. Oliver P. Morton, ex-governor of Indiana and United 
States senator from that state, and one of the most distinguished 
of our latter day statesmen, died on the first day of November. 

THE HUSBANDMAN'S REWARD. 

The harvest of this year was a successful one. The wheat crop 
was the largest ever raised in the State, and all of the wheat was 
No. 1. The yield in this county, both as to quality and quantity, 



446 HISTOnV OF 

was extraordinary, and if as great breadth had been sown as usual, 
we should have had the largest crop, in the aggregate, ever raised 
in this county. The acreage was less than usual, somewhat, because 
of the fear of destruction by the locusts. 

This was Minnesota's great wheat year, not .soon to be forgot- 
ten, and the news went out over all the nation and into foreign 
lands that "Minnesota has raised 40,000,000 bushels No. 1 wheat, 
36,000,000 bushels of which she can spare for export," all of which 
was true and had a great influence on immigration, counteracting, 
in a great measure, the evil effects of the locust visitation. 

The corn crop was also very heavy, and oats, barley, potatoes, 
and other products were satisfactory, as were also the prices. Saith 
the Psalmist cvii:14. "He maketh peace in thy borders, and fiUeth 
thee with the finest of wheat," and saith Joel, the prophet, in the 
twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth verses of the second chapter of his 
book, "And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath 
eaten, the cankerworm and the caterpillar and the palmerworm, my 
great army, which I sent among you." "And ye shall eat in plenty 
and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord, your God, that 
hath dealt wonderously with you." 

THE BALLOT BOX, 

At the election occurring this fall, a number of State as well as 
county officers were to be chosen, and six amendments to the consti- 
tution, proposed, were to be voted upon. 

John S. Pillsbury, for Governor, and James B. Wakefield, for 
Lieutenant Governor, the latter a resident of this county, were the 
republican nominees for those offices, and W. L Banning, for Gov- 
ernor, and A. A. Ames, for Lieutenant Governor, were the demo- 
cratic candidates. 

First in order of time was the Republican County Convention, 
which was held at Blue Earth City on the twenty-second day of Sep- 
tember. Andrew C. Dunn, of "Winnebago City, was chosen chair- 
man, and A. A. Williams, of Verona, secretary. The following 
nominations were made: 

For Senator— D. F. Goodrich. 

For Representatives— J. P. West, H. H. Gilman. 

For Treasurer— F. W. Temple. 

For Sheriff— Allen Cummings. 

For County Attorney— M. W. Greene. 

For Judge of Probate— J. A. Kiester. 

For County Commissioners: 

Second District— F. E. Carey. 

First District— L. K. Woodwick. 

Fourth District— C. B. Miner. 

Fifth District— W. Herring. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 447 

Next came the Democratic Convention, also held at Blue Earth 
City, which met September 27th. W. W. Stowe, of Delavan, was 
elected chairman, and Q. Adams, of Wells, secretary, when the fol- 
lowing nominations were made. 

J. W. PoUeys, for Senator. 

D. P. Wasgatt and Andrew Hanson, for Representatives. 

Otto Kanpp, for Treasm-er. 

M. B. Pratt, for Sheriff. 

S. J. Abbott, for County Attorney. 

The following named gentlemen were nominated as candidates for 
County Commissioners: 

First District — James Hardie. 

Second District— C M. Sly. 

Fourth District— Felix Hill. 

Fifth District — Andrew Woesner. 

A third convention was held at Delavan on the eight day of Oc- 
tober and placed in nomination: 

Thomas Blair and J. R. Sisson, for Representatives. 

A. W. Johnson, for Treasurer. 

Hiram Raymond, for Sheriff. 

Benjamin G. Reynolds, for County Attorney. 
For Commissioners: 

R. C. Alborn, for Second District. 

H. A. Woolery, for First District. 

A. H. Bullis, for Fourth District. 

J. Vial, for Fifth District. 

Chas. S. Dunbar, of Foster, was also a candidate for the Senate. 

The principal contest in this campaign, was on the offices of 
sheriff, treasurer, county attorney and re]3resentatives, and the elec- 
tioneering, during the two weeks prior to the election, was quite 
earnest, and most of the candidates visited, as usual, all the towns in 
the county. There were, however, but two or three public meetings 
held, and they were in the eastern portion of the county. There 
were two republican candidates for treasurer, and two, also, for 
sheriff, inconsequence of which the vote of that party was so divided 
that it resulted in the election of the democratic candidates for 
those offices. 

One printer reports that at his office, there were printed, 38,- 
500 tickets, and of these, three forms or styles, were "straight," and 
ninety-two forms, of combinations, or "split" tickets. 

The election was held on the sixth day of November. The fol- 
lowing table copied from the official canvass of the votes, indicates 
the result, as to local offices. The Republican State ticket was 
elected. 



448 Jiis/(u;y (IF 

For Governor: PiUsbury. 1,1271; Banning. 591. 

For Lieut. Governor: Wakefield, 1,240; Ames. oi29. 

For Senator; Goodrich, 1.168; Polleys, 521; Dunbar. 168. 

For Representatives: Gilman, 919; West, 9p7; Hanson, 523; 
Wasgatt. 662: Blair, 406; Sisson. 243. 

For Treasurer: Temple, 650; Kaupp. 747; Johnson, 405. 

For Sheriff: Cummings, 691; Pratt, 829; Raymond, 266. 

For Attorney: Green, 697; Abbott, 401; Reynolds. 531. 

Fur .Judge of Probate: Kiester. 1.662. 

For Commissioners: Gary, Woolery, Bullis and Catlin were 
elected. 

HALLOW EVE., OCTOHEK 31ST. 

Hallow Eve., known also as Halloween and Hallowmas Eve., is 
the vigil and eve., before, or of All Hallows, or All Saints' day, Nov. 
1st. ofeach j-ear. It is best known in this county by the name of 
Hallow Eve., and has been observed in some localities in this county, 
for a number of years, notably at various places, this year. It is 
annually observed in many countries. It is signilicant now among us, 
only because of the curious customs incident to its observance, but the 
day which it precedes, and of, or for, which it was formerly, and in 
some places still is, a preparation, is one of mucli significance, with 
many Christian people, and this being the fact, and to show the ori- 
gin and purpo.se of Hallow Eve., it is proper to say a word first, of 
All Saints' day. All Saints' day is a church festival, ob.servcd in 
honor and rememberance of all the Angels and Saints of Heaven, 
and it is now annually commemorated on Nov. 1st (but formerly in 
May) by the Roman Catholic church, the Greek Catholic church, 
the Anglican Catholic church, in England and America and else- 
where, known as the Church of England, in England, and the Pro- 
testant Episcopal church in American, and by the Lutheran church, 
thus embracing more than three-fourths of all Christendom. It 
has been observed ever since the fourth century, in the Eastern 
church and in the Western, or Latin church and the Engli.sh church, 
since the early part of the seventh century, when its observance 
was enjoined by the Bishop of Rome — Bonifaae, the Fourth. The 
thought, the sentiment implied, and the purpose intended in the 
observance of this day, are beautiful and devout. 

In the order of worship appointed for this day. in the Anglican 
Communion, we find the following ancient collect: 

"O Almighty God, who has knit togetherThineelect inonecorumuoion and 
fellowship in I he mystical bddy of Thy Son Christ, our Lord: prant us grace so 
to follow Thy blessed saints, in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come 
to those unspeal<able joys which Thou hast prepared for those who unfeign- 
pilly lovi' Th('i\ through .lesus Christ our Lord." 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 449 

It may now be repeated that Hallow Eve., is the evening preced- 
ing this day and was formerly, generally kept, as it is now, in some 
places, as the vigil, or watch, and preparation for All Saints' day. 

In the course of centuries, many follies, superstitions and curi- 
ous customs grew up in the various countries, in connection with 
this eve, among which we may name the performance of spells, by 
the young people, to discover their future life partners, charms and 
games, weird incantations, fireside revelries, cracking of nuts, from 
which it received the name of "nut crack night." It also came to be 
deemed the night when witches and devils went abroad and was 
hence called "witches' night." In fairy stories it was said that the 
faries held an anniversary on this night. In England and Scotland, 
many strange superstitions were current among the common peo- 
ple, as to this eve. 

The Scotch poet. Burns, wrote a fine poem, the subject of which 
was "All Halloween," from which we quote the following lines: 

"A.maDg the bonny winding banks 
Wliere doon runs wimpling clear, 
Where Bruce once ruled the martial ranks 

An' shook his Carrick spear, 
Some merry, friendly, country folks 

Together did convene 
To burn their nits and pou their stocks 
An' baud their Halloween, 
Fu' blithe that night." 

But it would be a long task to described the many and various 
performances indulged in on this evening in the past, and it will be 
sufficient to state how the Eve is observed in our day, and here, by 
many who never knew the origin of Hallow Eve., or what it means. 

In our times, instead of being a solemn vigil, it has become an 
evening devoted generally, to social meetings. frolic andpranks, par- 
ties and other social gatherings, the meeting of various societies, the 
calling suddenly of small companies oa their friends, are frequent 
incidents of the evening. But this is not all. It is also a sort of boys' 
night. The wild boys of the community, "get in" a good deal of 
mischief, which is not commendable, as the taking of gates off their 
hinges, changing of sign-boards, building of bonfires, the collecting 
of old kettles and boots, large stones, discarded hats and old bas- 
kets and other rubbish, and depositing the same in vestibules and on 
porches, quietly, then ring the door bell, and run away; also the 
pulling up of cabbages and beets, and throwing them against the 
doors of shops and dwellings, and other pranks too numerous to 
mention, and such as can only be thought of by a live boy full of 
what he calls fun. 

Thus it is that a solemn vigil, established by a bishop and ob- 
served by the church for centuries, became, in the old country, 



450 HISTORY OF 

loaded with superstitions and follies, and finally, as a writer has 
said, "crossed the ocean, as a season for frolics, and ends with a street 
boy's jolte." 

AN EARTHQUAKE ! ! 

And now we must relate the occurrence of a very unusual event 
for this region of country. On the tifteentla day of November, a 
slight earthquake shock was felt in this county. The following ex- 
cerpt, from the Winnebago City Press, gives a brief account of the 
shocli at that place. 

"The shock of Thursday, the 15th inst.,was very distinctly felt by many of our 
citizens, and no doubt caused some of the more worldly minded to hastily ijlance 
at their balance sheets to see how they would stand when they would be called 
up for flnal settlement. It must have been a doleful outlook for those delin- 
quents of ours. We have not seen any one that can give us the exact time of 
the occurrence, but all agree that it was only a few minutes before twelve o'clock, 
A. M. We were in our office in the second story of Union (brick) block, busy get- 
ting ready for press, and did not notice anything unusual. But many of our 
business men and other reliable citizens did observe it, who say the shock lasted 
from twenty to thirty seconds. S. . I. Abbott, Esq. , says the two stofy frame 
building, on the second Hour of which he has his otlice, swayed back and forth 
one or two inches, from north to south. Mr. J. F. Winship, who was alone 
writing at a desk in the post otlice, reports about the same duration of the 
shock, but affirms that his oscillating observations were from east to west. 
One gentleman, sitting in a buggy on the prairie, about seven miles west of this 
town, declares he heard the peculiar rumbling sound, and distinctly felt the 
trembling of the earth. However, no damage was done to buildings or crock- 
ery, that we have heard of, and we have probably experienced our first and last 
earthquake." 

"THE ALHEUT LEA EAKTFKiUAKE." 

An Albert Lea correspondent of the Pioneer P)-€.«s, writing under date of 
the 16th inst., says: 

"Our newest sensation is an earthquake. It occurred yesterday, at six 
minutes of twelve a. m.; lasted about twenty seconds; oscillations very rapid: 
motion distinctly noticed to be from east to west; hanging-laiups. bird cages, 
water standing in vessels, all swung back and forth in the saiue direction. No 
damage done, no special alarm felt.'" 

The shock was also recognized by a few persons at Blue Eartli 

City. 

"1 kin hump my buck and take the rain. 
And I don't keer how she pours: 
I kin keep kindo' ca'm in a thunder storm, 
No matter how loud she roars; 

I haint much skeered o' the lightnin', 

Ner I haint sich awful shakes 
A feared o' cyclones — hut I don't want none 

O' yer dad-burned old earthquakes!"— .Biki/. 

A BRACE OF ITEMS. 

There were 37,529 forest trees planted on Arbor day, of this 
year, and there were planted during the whole year, 352,019. and 
the whole number of forest trees, including cuttings, set out in the 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 451 

county, up to this time, was 5,993,435, covering 4,734 acres, and 
that, of this number of trees, there were set out in rows along the 
highways, 8,430 rods. 

At this time, the great question of interest in educational mat- 
ters, was the State school text-book system, which was, simply 
stated, the system of supplying all our schools with books by the 
State, instead of making contracts with book publishers for the 
same. The objects to be gained were, better, more uniform, and 
cheaper school books. We clip the following item from the super- 
intendent's report. The law relating to this subject was known as 
the "Merrill Text-Book law." 

STATE TEXT-BOOKS. 

On the second of September, I issued a circular in which the worliing ma- 
chinery of the law was explained. I also appointed several meetings to discuss 
the subject. I have explained how, in case it was deemed best not to make 
any changes, books now in use could be secured at lower rates by districts pur- 
chasing direct from the publishers. 

The Merrill bill was indorsed by the republican .convention of this county, 
and subsequently by the people's convention. 

It needs many amendments, and will no doubt receive the attention of the 
legislature the coming winter." 

The text-book law was a topic of heated discussion in the news- 
papers of the time, and elsewhere, for some years, but became set- 
tled, finally, in favor of the law. 

FINE WEATHER. 

Dry weather prevailed during the fall, as appears from the fol- 
lowing item, from a paper dated September 28th. 

"We need a good soaking rain very much. It is said that the streams and 
lakes were never so low before as they are now, and we know that, all the wells 
are drying up, so that a fellow can hardly get enough water to make his tea 
with." 

The first heavy frost of the season occurred on the night of 
October 3d, being much later than usual. 

The first snow fell on the fourth of November, and the ground 
froze up, for a few days, quite hard, but soon thawed out again, and 
we had a remarkably fine term of weather for December. For 
several weeks the weather was very mild, and some rain fell. The 
air was soft and balmy, like Indian summer, and vegetation started 
up again, to a considerable growth. The plows were put to work. 
Owing to several heavy rains about the seventeenth of the month, 
the mud became very deep, and the roads almost impassable. Plow- 
ing continued as late as the twenty- eighth of the month. 

The opinion was current among the farmers that the grasshop- 
pers would not return again, and they were much encouraged and 
put forth every effort to get all the land they possibly could pre- 
pare, ready for the crops in the spring. Every one was hopeful 
that a new and prosperous era had dawned for the State. 



452 HISTORY OF 



CHAJ'TER XXIV. 

A. D. 1878. 

OUR STATESMEN. 

The twentieth State legislature assembled January 8th, and ad- 
journed March 8th. 

This was a very important session, in many respects. We may 
call attention first to the acts passed, having a direct relation to the 
county. They were fewer this year, than usual, and numbered but 
two. They were as follows: 

"An act relating to WinoehaKd City Independent School District." 
"An act to le^jalize the issue of bonds in School District No. 22." 

Another act was passed, granting certain swamp lands, to aid 
in the construction of what may be named here sufficiently, as the 
St. Cloud and the Blue Earth Valley Railroads, which was intro- 
duced by one of our representatives, Mr. Gilman. The act was 
vetoed, however, by the governor. 

Still another act was passed having considerable interest to the 
people of this county, but in order to understand the matter, it is 
necessary to say, that there was organized at Lanesboro. in this 
State, on the seventeenth day of .January, the Southern Minne.sota 
Railway Extension Company, the purpose of which was to build the 
Southern Minnesota Railroad from Winnebago City to the west line 
of the State, and to secure from the legislature the forfeited lands 
of the old railroad company referred to in the history of the last 
year. 

The Southwestern Minnesota Railroad Company, organized at 
Winnebago City in October of last year, and this new Extension 
Company, became rival applicants, before the legislature, for the 
transfer of the rights of the old company, in the grant of lands. 
The contest was very earnest, in fact somewhat bitter, between the 
rival claimants, but finally, the act was passed, entitled: 

"An act Krantinii to the Southern Minnesota Railway Extension Company, 
certain lands, m aid of the construction of the line of road of said company.'" 

Our local company, therefore, lost the grant and retired. 

As a condition of the grant, the Extension Company were re- 
quired to complete the road from Winnebago City to Fairmont, in 
Martin county, by the first day of September, of this year, and to 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 453 

the west line of the State, before the end of the year 1880, ail of 
which was accomplished. And thus was completed one of the earli- 
est projected and one of the greatest railroads of the Northwest. 
And we cannot but feel something of a local pride in the final ac- 
complishment of this great project, when we consider that the road 
traverses our county from the east to the west line, and that two of 
the principal projectors and builders of the road have resided, for 
many years, in this county— Col. C. W. Thompson, who may justly 
be styled the father of the road, and for many years the president 
of the company, and general manager, and Hon. H. W. HoUey, for 
many years connected with the road as a member of the company, 
civil engineer and also general manager — men who stood by the 
project from the beginning, and by their indomitable energy and 
perseverance, surmounting almost impossible difficulties and many 
adverse circumstances, until the road was so far completed as to be 
already one of the great roads of the State, and its ultimate success 
assured. 

During this session of the legislature, articles of impeachment 
were preferred by the House, impeaching Sherman Page, Judge of 
the tenth judicial district, of certain offenses. 

On the sixth of March, the senate convened and organized as a 
high court of impeachment for the trial of Judge Page, and on the 
eighth of March adjourned to May 22d, when the court reconvened 
for the hearing. On June 28th the court voted on the several 
articles of impeachment, and the Judge was acquitted, though the 
majority was largely in favor of impeachment, but not the requisite 
two-thirds. 

Our county was represented in the twentieth legislature by 
Daniel P. Goodrich, in the Senate, and J. P. West and H. H. Gil- 
man in the House. James B. Wakefield, of this county. Lieutenant 
Governor, was President of the Senate and also of the High Court 
of Impeachment. 

WEATHER NOTES. 

Plowing was done in this county on January 1st. The winter 
was a very mild one, in fact a very remarkable one. There was but 
litttle snow, and no sleighing. For many weeks together, the ground 
was dry and dusty. Winter clothing was not in great demand. The 
fuel bill was much less than it usually is, and stock did not consume 
to exceed two-thirds of the usual amount of food, and outdoor work 
was not delayed on account of the weather. 

SPRING SEEDING. 

The spring of this year opened quite early. The Mississippi 
river opened for navigation, from St. Paul, Minn., to New Orleans, 
La., March 8th, being the earliest opening for thirty- four years past. 



454 niSTOUY OF 

The record has been kept since 1844. Some seeding was done the 
latter part of February, but this work generally, was commenced 
about the fifteenth of March. Il was reported that a farmer in Blue 
Earth county had completed the seeding of one hundred acres of 
wheat by the eighth day of March. Farmers, generally, this spring 
made an effoi't to seed in good and husbandlike mannei-, all the 
ground possible. There were good prospects, and many hopes of a 
golden reward. 

SOCIAL LIFE — FAMOUS LECTURERS. 

Owing, perhaps to the mild weather and the exhilarating influ- 
ence of forty million bushels of No. 1 wheat and good prices, it 
may be remarked that there was, during the winter and spring, 
more of gayety, life in social circles, and social enjoyments gener- 
ally, than had been known for some years. The papers contained 
many notices and accounts of parties, concerts, lectures, dances, 
mum sociables, literary readings, debates, amateur theatricals, be- 
sides a host of religious, scientific and temperance meetings. And 
here the agreeable fact may be noted, that during the winter and 
spring of this year, the county was visited by a number of persons 
of national reputation, who delivered lectures at several places in 
the county. In the latter part of January, Miss Susan B. Anthony 
came and lectured at Blue Earth City and several other places in 
the county. In February, Dr. J. J. Villiars, the great humorist. In 
March we heard Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Will Carlton, and 
in April, Miss Phoeba Couzens, the famous female lawyer and lec- 
turer of St. Louis, Mo. 

The fact was, that at the close of the previous year, and in the 
early part of this year, an impression, a presentiment, existed among 
the people, generally, that the heavy burden of the unsettled and 
stringent times, financially and otherwise, was about to be removed 
and that an era of great prosperity was near at hand, and the influ- 
ence of this hopefulness, was seen in many directions. 

A railroad! a railroad!! 

About the first of March, another railroad project started up 
and created much interest. This was a proposition on the part of 
the St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad Company to consti-uct and put 
in operation a line of road from their main line at Lake Crystal, in 
Blue Earth County, running southward to the Iowa State line, by 
way of Winnebago City and Blue Earth City. This was indeed but 
the revival of an old project, on which considerable effort had been 
expended a number of tipies before, but it was such an important 
project, from the fact that a north and south road, ultimately 
reaching the coal fields of Iowa, was the great consideration in our 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 455 

railroad system, that the people at once accepted the proposition, 
and went to work to comply with the requirements of the company. 
The company required the voting to them of certain amounts of 
bonds in the several towns through which the road would pass. 

The bonds, or "bonuses" were voted in the months of June and 
July, executed and deposited in bank, as required by the proposi- 
tion, and to make a long story short, for the writer, and certainly 
the reader is weary of these railroad affairs, the x'oad was graded 
from Blue Earth City northward some fifteen miles, by the first day 
of November. Our assurance was greater now than ever before, 
that we should get, at last, the much coveted north and south road, 
the next year. 

OUR SUNDAY SCHOOL ASSOCIATION. 

The eighth annual meeting of the Sunday School Association, 
was held at Blue Earth City, on the 22d and 23d days of May. A 
very large number of delegates were present and many schools were 
represented. The exercises were of much interest, and the reports 
indicated much progress, as being made in the good work. The of- 
ficers elected for the ensuing year were, Mrs. H. C. Cheadle, presi- 
dent, and Mrs. Henry McKinstry, vice president, A. C. Dunn, secre- 
tary and D. B. Thurston, treasurer. 

The subject was introduced and discussed at this meeting, of 
instituting township Sunday School Conventions, and a resolution 
was adopted, calling such a convention in the town of Verona on 
the sixteenth day of June following, and delegates were elected to 
attend the same. 

"SO SAY WE, ALL OF US." 

Of our courts this year, it may be said, that as usual there were 
two terms, at both of which Judge Dickinson, presided. The Jan- 
uary term commenced on New Year's day. There were three crimi- 
nal, and thirty-three civil cases, noted on the calendar. The June 
term commenced June 4th. At this term the calendar presented 
three criminal and twenty-four civil cases. Several criminal trials 
were had at this term, which created much public interest — those 
of the State vs. Fred J. Williams and the State vs. Henry Measor. 
The following is a statement of the facts out of which these trials 
originated. 

ATTEMPTED ROBBERY AND MURDER. 

Eobert Mapson and wife, an elderly couple, live in Winnebago, and keep 
a restaurant. Their accumulated savings amount to $500. Some persons with 
murder in their hearts, learned of tliis fact, and determined to possess them- 
selves of the money, even thougli the sacrifice of a life was necessary. 

On Saturday night last, March 23d, they retired to rest as usual, he sleep- 
ing alone, and his wife with her sister. At a late hour she was awakened by a 
noise in the adjoining room, and heard the voice of her husband saying, "I 



456 BlSTOliY OF 

have no inimi'y." Then she heard rapid blows. She at once rushed liilo the 
niiini, and cried murder, and ran to the front door and aroused near ncl^'hl>ors. 
Thi'se (Iciiionstrations frightened the villains away. Assistance was then ren- 
dered Mr. Mapson, who was found to be badly injured about the head and face, 
and one ami broken. 

A' igorous measures were at once instituted, to hunt down the would-be 
murderers, and on Monday afternoon, a young man named Henry Measor, who 
had been living' near Winnebago for several years, was arrested nn suspicion, 
and failing to give bonds, is now in jail, awaiting an examination before Justice 
Mell, on Thur.-day next. 

Sheriff Pratt was satisfied that this man Measor had an accomplice, and 
having secured additional evidence, proceeded on Thursday, about four miles 
northwest of Winnebago, and arretted a young man named F. J. Williams, and 
brought him to Hlue Earth City, where he is now under examination before 
Justice G. B. Kingsley. The sherilT found on Williams' premises a policeman's 
club, loaded, with which the murderous blows were inflicted on Mr. Mapson. 

Both Measor and Williams were held for their appearance at the 
next (June) term of the district court. At the trial. Measor plead 
guilty, and was sentenced to seven years, at hard labor, in the State 
prison. Williams plead not guilty, Measor being the principal wit- 
ness against him, and was acquitted by the jury. The current 
opinion was, however, that Williams was the principal in the crime. 
Measor was pardoned by the governor in 1882, and discharged from 
prison. 

A TENDER HEARTED JUDGE. 

A Texas judge lately made the following very considerate de- 
cision. He said: 

"The fact is, Jones, the jail is an old, rickety affair, as cold as an iron 
wedge. You applied to the court for a release on bail, giving it as your opinion 
that you would freeze to death there. That is my opinion also, and to keep you 
from such sutTering, I do now order and direct the sheritT to hang you at four 
o'clock this afternoon, and may God be as merciful to you as 1 am " 

LIBERTY FOREVER ! 

A word must be said in reference to the Fourth of July, 1878. 

The day was celebrated at Wells, where C. S. Dunbar, of Foster, 
read the Declaration, and M. S. Wilkinson delivered the oration. 

At the grove of Mr. Cahoon, in the town of Elmore, a very in- 
teresting observance of the day occurred. Here C. H. Slocum was 
the reader, and the orators were James Hardie and S. W. Graham. 

A formal celebration was had, also, at Minnesota Lake and at 
several places in the county there were pic-nics. 

At Shelbyville, just over the north county line, a reunion of old 
settlers was had, at which many residents of the county attended. 
The peculiar feature of this meeting was the number of short and 
interesting addresses, by old settlers of this county, in which their 
experiences in frontier life were related. The day was very tine, 
and the attendance, at all of the above points, was large, and the 
occasion afforded much pleasure to all. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 457 

THE REFRAIN OF THE REAPERS. 

Never was there a better prospect for a bountiful crop, than 
there was in this county, a few weeks before the harvest of this year. 
A great breadth of small grain had been sown and the stand was all 
that could be desired. Everyone Avas confident of getting, at 
least, twenty bushels of No. 1 wheat per acre. But a sad disap- 
pointment awaited the people. Instead of getting the best, we had 
probably the poorest wheat crop ever gathered in this county. The 
causes of this great misfortune were, the intense heat and excessive 
rains. From the 10th to the 20th of July, especially the IFth and, 
also, for many days after, excessive heat prevailed. Many wei-e 
compelled to quit work. The average temperature, for many 
days, was 95° in the shade, but sometimes it ran as high as 103° 
The heat was of that oppressive, sultry character, which enervates 
the whole system. During this time and, also, through harvest, 
the rains, especially at night, were quite heavy and the streams 
rose higher than they had been known for years. Many small 
bridges were swept away. The I'oads became very bad. The bot- 
tom grass lands were overflowed, destroying much of the best grass. 
The wheat was blasted and shriveled, and the lands became so miry, 
that it was next to impossible to get on the fields to cut, or take care 
of the grain, making the harvest difficult and expensive. Much of 
the grain was cut late, and some was not cut at all. 

This condition of things existed throughout the greater portion 
of what we call Southern Minnesota. In the northern portion of 
the State, however, the wheat crop, this year, was abundant, and the 
quality veiy good. To comprehend this calamity to the people of 
this county fully, it is necessary to state further, that owing to 
various causes, not necessary to name here, the general prices of 
wheat at best, had fallen very low, and when this inferior grain came 
to the market, the farmer realized the fact that the wheat crop of 
this year was a failure. The prices paid ranged from twenty to forty 
cents per bushel. Most of the wheat was below any grade which 
had yet been established. The average yield of wheat in this county 
was from five to eight bushels per acre. Oats and other small grain, 
also, shared somewhat in the blight. Much of the oats was as light 
as chaff, but there were some good fields. But to counterbalance 
the short crops of wheat and oats, the corn crop was abundant, po- 
tatoes and all other vegetables were good and plentiful, and fruits 
of all kinds were an average yield. The dairy products of the year 
were large, and also the amount of wool grown, and stock of all 
kinds were thrifty, and yielded a handsome income. We can live 
and prosper in this county without raising a bushel of wheat. 



458 HISTORY OF 

FORECASTING THE WEATHER. 

A passing remark may here be added in relation to foretelling 
the weather. While there is undoubtedly much uncertainty in 
weather prognostications, yet the time has arrived when science 
has become able to afford many valuable suggestions as to the prob- 
able future weather conditions that are worthy of attention. There 
are always many weather prophecies uttered by the old weather 
prophets of the neighborhood, as to the coming weather, especially 
as to hard or mild winters, and they are generally worthless. We 
have heard a hard winter prophesied, because the corn husks were 
thick, or because themuskratshad built large houses, or because the 
moss was very thick on the north side of the trees, or that the squir- 
rels had stored up large stocks of nuts, or that the frogs had buried 
themselves for the winter in the muck of the ponds perpendicular, 
heads down and heels to the zenith. 

Conjectures, based upon ascertained and uniform facts, observed 
during a long course of years and noted by scientific men, are get- 
ting to be worthy of some attention. As an illustration of some of 
the methods pursued in this direction, we append a brief article 
clipped from the St. Paul Press, of July 23d, 1878. "Old Prob." cer- 
tainly hit the mark this year. 

LOUK OUT KOIi A WET HARVEST. 
Minneapolis dept. Pioneer-Presii. 

Mr. Wm. Cheney, our local "Probabilities," who has kept a complete and ac- 
curate weather record in ihis city for the past twelve years, is authority for the 
statement that we are liable to have a wet harvest. He Hnds that the average 
rainfall during the season, one year with another, is 23.631 inches, tlie variation 
is only about six inches— three inches either aliove or below the average. The 
rainfall this year during the month of April, May and .lune was 8.720 inches, 
considerably below the average. Add to this the average of three succeeding 
months, July, August and September, (which covers the period of harvesting) 
and we have but 19.972 inches, whereas the average for the corresponding six 
months of the past twelve years has been 2;i.681 inches. By close observation 
Mr. Cheney is satisfied that nature is accustomed to balance her books each sea- 
son, and he is therefore of the opinion that we are liable to have more rain, be- 
tween now and the tlrst of October, than the farmers will really want. All of 
which is worthy of iheir attention, in securing the standing crops. 

SOME ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST. 

Pope Pius IX, aged 85 years, died February 7th, and was suc- 
ceeded by Leo XIII, on February 20th. 

On February 28th, a bill, known as the "Bland Silver Bill," was 
passed by Congress, over the veto of the President. For some 
years prior to 1877 8, silver dollars had not been in use in the 
United States. Silver, as money, had. by the act of 1873. been 
practically degraded and demonetized, as has been alleged. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 459 

The Bland Bill ordered the coinage of large sums in silver 
dollars, of 412A^ grains weight, and provided that they might be used 
in the payment of debts by the government. Silver was thus re- 
monetized. But this act provided that contracts might be made 
requiring that payments should be made in gold. 

A "gi-eenback" dollar was becoming as good as a gold dollar. 

March 3d. Peace was concluded between Russia and Turkey. 

Early in August, that fatal disease, the yellow fever, made its 
appearance in the South. In one of our local papers we find the 
following very appro^sriate remarks: 

"It is appalling to us, situated so far away, to read daily of the visitation 
of that dreadful scourage, yellow fever, that is raging to such an alarming ex- 
in the southern states and cities. We get only a superficial idea of its disastrous 
effects. Hundreds have died, and hundreds more are lying sick in all its stages. 
Thousands are flying northward to catch the healthy breezes of northern local- 
ities; towns with their two or three thousand population are almost deserted, 
and yet, while we look complacently on the destruction this disease is making 
1,000 miles south of us, do we fully appreciate the healthfulness of our own 
climate? When one of those "gentle zephyrs" stirs up the sluggardness of 
our systems, we are apt to exclaim, "blast those winds." We do not stop to 
think that in them is the very elixir that blows away the malarious and pesti- 
lential fevers and other diseases that combine from various unforseeu circum- 
stances to invade the household. Let us be thankful for the breezes that 
scimetimes fiercely blow, for in them we And health, comfort, and bodily 
vigor." 

This group of general facts may be supplemented by the state- 
ment of a significant local item. 

The stimulus of the great wheat crop of the preceding year, the 
universal belief that the locusts had left us, finally, and the prospects 
in the spring, induced the farmers to break up much additional 
land, and an immense quantity of land was turned over, not only in 
this county, but throughout the State. 

THE COUNTY BOARD. 

During this year the board of county commissioners had five 
meetings of several days' each, but no business of historical interest 
was transacted, except that the board entered into contract with a 
purchaser, to sell to him one hundred and sixty acres, or one half 
of what was known as the "Poor Farm." At the January meeting, 
A. H. Bullis was elected chairman for the year. 

AGRICULTURAL MATTERS. 

The Agricultural Society held its annual meeting January 3d. 
The treasurer reported the receipts of the year to be $172.45 and 
the disbursements $161.34, leaving in the treasury §11.11. The 
officers elected for the year were A. R. More, Sr., of Pilot Grove, 
president; C. H. Slocum, secretary, and Henry Sellen, treasurer, and 
one vice president was chosen for each township Mr. Sellen de- 



480 HISTORY OF 

clinod to serve, and Henry M. Temple was subsequently elected 
treasurer. During the year, a high board fence was built on the 
north and west sides of the fair grounds, and the buildings were 
removed to better situations and repaired, and a number of covered 
stalls, stables and pens, were erected, all adding much to the con- 
venience and value of the grounds. The annual fair was held at 
the grounds, near Blue Earth City, on the 19th, 20th and 21st days 
of September. The following article gives a very correct ac- 
count of 

THE FAIR. 

"The c'ouuty fair of last week is prondunced by all to he a .success, flnan- 
cially, and in attendance. More people were present than at any previous fair, 
and the ^ate money received was nearly doubled. The storm on Thursday 
eveninj,' made a difTerence in the first day's receipts, and interfered very much 
with the exhibit of stock. There were 429 articles entered for exhibition. 
What stock, horses, cattle, sheep and swine, there were, were all Urst-class, 
and very creditable to Faribault county. 

The exhibits in floral hall were very fine, especially in the fruit depart- 
ment. L. C. Seaton had on exhibition thirty-ei^ht varieties, all of them very 
choice, and of course took first premiums. J. D. Stanton, Capt. Davy and 
Frank Cole, also exhibited some choice varieties of apples. 

The principal attractions were the races and glass ball shooting, in which 
a large number participated. 

Taken altogether, the fair was the best ever held in the county, and the 
society has, in a great degree, so regained public confidence that we can safely 
guarantee future fairs to be successful, and improvements on the one just 
closed." 

THE FALL ELECTIONS. 

At the election held this fall, an associate justice of the supreme 
court, several state officers and a member of congress, in addition to 
our local officers were to be elected. 

Mark H Bunnell, was the republican and Wm. Meighen (green- 
backer) the opposition candidate for congress. 

Mr. Bunnell was elected. 

The Republican County Convention was held at Blue Earth City, 
on the fifth day of October. After choosing .J. H. Welch, of Winne- 
bago City, chairman, and Geo. W. Buswell, of Blue Earth City, sec- 
retary, the convention made the following nominations: 

For Senator — R. B. Johnson . 

For Representatives — J. P. West and T. S. Wroolie. 

For Register of Beeds — F. P. Brown. 

For Auditor— W. W. White. 

For Superintendent of Schools — Bavid Ogilvie. 

For County Surveyor — E. H. Leavitt. 

For Coroner — C. S. Kimball. 

On the ninth day of the same month the Bemocratic County 
Convention was held at Blue Earth City. B. P. Wasgatt, of Winne- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 461 

bago City, was elected chairman, aud C. W. Apley, of Minnesota 
Lake, secretary. The convention adjourned over to the nineteenth 
of the month, when the following nominations were made: 

Geo. B. Kingsley, for Senator. 

N. Kremer and H. M. Huntington, for Repx'esentatives. 

A. Bonwell, for Auditor. 

P. P. Brown, for Register of Deeds. 

Geo. A. Weir, for County Surveyor. 

J. A. Dean, for Superintendent of Schools. 

A. B. Balcom, for Coroner. 

Next came the County Convention of the Nationals (Greenback- 
ers), which was held at Blue Earth City, on the nineteenth of Octo- 
ber. A. H. Bullis, of Verona, was chosen chairman, and C. W. Ap- 
ley, of Minnesota Lake, secretary, when the following nominations 
were made: 

For Senator — J. H. Sprout, and for Representative — A. H. 
Bullis. 

For Auditor — W. W. White, and for Register of Deeds — G. H. 
Claggett. 

For County Surveyor — Geo. A. Weir. 

A very strong effort was made to form a coalition between the 
two conventions assembled at this time, and unite upon one ticket, 
but it was not successful, and each party made its own nominations. 
About this time Daniel F. Goodrich was announced as an indepen- 
dent candidate for Representative, and R. W. Richards as an inde- 
pendent candidate for Superintendent of Schools. 

The political issues were mainly on the financial question, "hard 
money, "and resumption of specie payments on the one hand and "soft 
money," "fiat money," or more properly speaking the "greenback 
theory," on the other. In the local campaign, though quite a num- 
ber of meetings were held about the county by several of the candi- 
dates, the canvass was not as active a one as many that preceded it. 
The election was held November 5th. 

The following statement of the vote cast for the several candi- 
dates, is taken from the official canvass: 

For Senator: R. B. Johnson, 962; J. H. Sprout, 513; G. B. 
Kingsley, 270. 

For Representatives: Wroolie, 840; West, 852; Kremer, 527; 
Bullis, 537; Goodrich, 331; Huntington, 363. 

For Auditor: White, 1,158; Bonwell, 597. 

For Register: Brown, 1,516; Claggett, 220. 

For Surveyor: Weir, 629; Leavitt, 1,119. 

For Superintendent: Ogilvie, 651; Richards, 674; Dean, 421. 
For Coroner: Kimball, 1,438; Balcom, 302. 



462 HISTORY OF 

Some of the candidates, at this election, jrot themselves into 
strange conditions, politically, and for some time after election 
hardly knew where they stood, reminding us of two certain Irish- 
men who had just landed in America. They took a room in the 
second story of a small hotel for the night. During the night the 
house took fire and the guests were awakened suddenly. Pat arose 
in great haste, and in the confusion got his trowseis on "hind side" 
to the front, and dropped himself out of the window to the ground. 
Moike, greatly frightened, hurried to the window and called out, 
"Pat mo bye, aint ye kilt intoirly?" "No, I aint hurted" said Pat. 
looking down at his trowsers, "but Moike," said he, mournfully, "I 
guess I am fatally twisted, sure." 

FROST— PRICES CURRENT. 

The first killing frost occurred on the night of September lOlh. 
The fall weather was very pleasant for threshing and plowing, up to 
the twenty-fourth of November, when the first snow fell, but both 
threshing and plowing were continued far into December. 

The following list of prices current November 20th, may inter- 
est some reader: 

Dry Goods: Best prints, 6 to 7 cents per yard; sheetings, 6 to 10: canton 
flannel, 10 to 15; wool flannels, 35 to 50; good cashmeres, $1.00 to 11.25. Groceries: 
Coffee, 5 to 6 lbs. for $1.00; tea, 25 to 75 per lb.; sugar, white, 9 lbs. for $1.00; 
browD, 10 to 11 and 10 to 12 lbs. for $1.00; dried apples, 10 to 12 lbs. for $1.00. 
Canned fruits: Peaches, 25; raspberries and blackberries, 20. Farm products: 
Corn meal, $1.00 per hundred; wheat, 35 to 50; oats, 25: corn, 25: potatoes, 25; 
butler, 6 to 10; cheese, 8 to 10; eggs, 12; flour, $2.00 to $2.50 per hundred: live 
hogs, $2.00 per huhdred. 

THANKSGIVING DAY. 
(The last Thursday of November, i 

The WM'iter has gathered, from many sources, some facts and 
thoughts to express here, with his own views, of this well known 
day in our American calendar. And it is well, first of all. to quote 
a few sentences from the Great Book, and several others of like 
character. This is a religious subject. 

"Lord Thou hast been our refuge from one generation to another.'' Ps. xc: 1. 

"Thou crownest the year wiih thy goodness." Ps. Lxv: 11. 

"The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over 
with corn.'" Ps. lxv: 13. 

"Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prcpareth rain for the earth, 
who makcth grass to grow upon the mountains." Ps. cxlvii: 8. 

"Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits." Ps. lxviii: 19. 

"Let us come Ijefore His presence with thanksgiving." Ps. lii: 2. 

"Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the Most High." 
Pa. l: U. 

"O ye children of men, bless ye the Lord, praise Him and magnify Him 
forever." 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 463 

"Young luen and maidens, old men and children, praise the name of the 
Lord." 

"Let everything that hath breath, praise the Lord." Ps. cl: 6. 

"Therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, 
we laud and magnify Thy glorious name, evermore praising Thee, and saying: 
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of Thy glory; 
glory be to Thee, O Lord Most High." 

Thanksgiving day is one of the two great American holidays, the 
other being the Fourth of July, and it is peculiarly American in its 
origin and characteristics. Among the ancient Hebrew people there 
existed an annual feast, known as the Feast of Tabernacles, or 
Feast of Ingathering, at the end of the year. "On the fifteenth day 
of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the 
land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord" (Lev. xxiii: 39), was the 
command. This feast, probably, suggested the annual thanksgiv- 
ing day of later times. More nearly allied to it, however, is the 
Harvest Home Festival, of our day, a most beautiful and appropri- 
ate observance. This festival is usually held in September. When 
held at the churches, and attended with religious services, the in- 
terior of the church is usually tastefully decorated with fine fruits, 
vegetables, cereals and flowers, attractively arranged, and the ser- 
vices are conducted with special reference to the occasion. 

"And now, once more, the time of harvest past, 
God's children come to offer praise, 
Not only for the yield and increase vast. 
But all the blessings of their day." 

"For the return of seed time and harvest, and for crowning the year with 
Thy goodness in the increase of the ground and gathering in of the fruits 
thereof, and for all the other blessings of Thy merciful providence bestowed 
upon this nation and people." 

But, generally, though erroneously. Thanksgiving day and the 
Harvest Home Festival are deemed, practically, the same, and 
Thanksgiving day is the only day of general observance. 

Centuries ago, the civil authorities of various countries in 
Europe, occasionally appointed a day of public thanksgiving for 
such blessings as great victories, deliverance from famines, plagues 
and pestilences, and the like, and it is one of the peculiar features 
of the day we are writing about, that though it is a religious festi- 
val, yet it is always appointed by the civil powers. 

But this festival, as we know and observe it in America, origi- 
nated with the Puritans. The first public thanksgiving day ap- 
pointed in America, occurred in old Plymouth Colony, in 1621. After 
the gathering of the first harvest by the colonists. Gov. Bradford 
appointed a thanksgiving day, and it is recorded that he sent four 
men out "fowling" (for wild turkeys probably) that they "might, 
after a more special manner, rejoice together." In 1623, another 



•101 HISTORY OF 

day of thanksgiving was appointed for an abundant, refreshing and 
much needed rain, and in various subsequent years, such days were 
appointed in this colony. 

In the colony of Massachusetts Bay, thanksgiving days were 
appointed in 1631. and for a number of years, annually, thereafter. 
Such days were also appointed in other portions of the country, 
outside of New England, during the colonial times. 

During the Revolution, the day became a national institution, 
being annually i-ecommended by congi-ess, but subsequently it was 
observed, nationally, at irregular intervals, and only on special 
occasions. 

In 1789 and in 1795, President Washington issued proclama 
tions, recommending a day of thanksgiving for the whole nation. 
But in many of the states, especially in those of New England, it 
continued to be observed annually, and in the latter states, it has 
been, through all the years, the principal home festival, always 
most highly prized by the people. 

Since 1863, when President Lincoln appointed a national thanks- 
giving day, it has become again, an annual national institution. 

The usual time now fixed for the day is the last Thursday of 
November. 

The president of the United States, annually, issues a proclam- 
ation, specifying the day, and is followed by the governors of the 
several states, who usually recommend the same day. 

These official proclamations are usually carefully written papers 
and vary a good deal in length and style. Some have been written 
in verse, and occasionally one is humorous, but generally they are 
in substance uniform. It has been said that in the old days in Mas- 
sachusetts, and probably in some other states, the governors' 
proclamations, on these occasions, were about a yard long, and 
when the pastor read the document in church, which has been the 
custom for many years, one end would hang down to the floor, in 
the aisle, before he had finished it. It told the people in great 
detail, what they should be thankful for — crops, health, peace, etc. 
— and admonished them to go to church, to say their prayers, to eat 
a good dinner and generally, on that day, to unite piety with jollity. 

Of late years, however, these i^apors are much shorter, and 
some are so brief that they only recommend the day, without fur- 
ther comment. 

We cannot now state the first observance of the day in this 
county, but it has been ob.served, annually, for many years, with all 
the old time customs, by the people generally. 

The customs incident to the day vary somewhat in different 
localities, but the leading features, everywhere, are, first, the gather- 
ing at the churches, or other places of holding religious meetings. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. ' 465 

for religious services; and second, the thanksgiving dinner, par- 
taken of by the family and invited guests. Stores and other busi- 
ness houses are usually closed up for a part of the day. There was, 
it is said, in the old puritan times, a touch of asceticism in its ob- 
servance, and it is also said that the puritan forefathers, when their 
peculiar religious opinions were more strongly maintained than 
they now are, sought to substitute Thanksgiving day for Christmas, 
as the great religious festival of the year, and even went so far as 
to punish some persons for keeping Christmas. But they only suc- 
ceeded partially, for a short time, and the day now partakes much 
of the jollity of Christmas, and the people of this age observe both 
days. . 

Nor must it be forgotten here to state, that many who have no 
special regard for the religious character of the day, observe it in 
ways not always indicative of special thankfulness, Balls, routs, 
parties, dancing, shooting matches, games of various kinds, are 
often incidents of the day. The turkey, well roasted and stuiied, 
and flanked with many a dish of good things, is the great bird of 
America, on Thanksgiving Day, and the proud eagle must, for this 
day, at least, abdicate his supremacy. 

The turkey, pumpkin pie, brown bread, and baked beans, are 
' the great, leading, and "regulation" dishes of the thanksgiving din- 
ner, and it was with these dishes that the pilgrim fathers vainly 
thought to shove out Christmas, with its geese, and puddings, and 
mince pies. But we of this age, have compromised the old quarrel 
by taking them all, in their due season. 

The following amusing verse appeared in the newspapers some 

years ago: 

"Thanksgiving day will soon be here, 
The homemade Sabbath of the year; 

And all the land from west to east, 
Will then prepare a turkey feast. 

The fatted ones will then be slain, 
From California down to Maine " 

And a would-be witty writer says: 

"The average turkey, all over the land, has read, with mingled feelings of 
indignation and dismay, that the governor has recommended another Thanks- 
giving day." 

Thanksgiving day is peculiarly the day of family reunions— 
the day when all the younger branches of the family, to the third 
and fourth generation, are, when convenient, assembled again, un- 
der the old homestead roof, and around the festal board. And it is 
well thus, on this day, to gather home the scattered childi-en, in 
that most sacred of all temples — home — and give thanks and enjoy 
a happy reunion, about the old hearth-stone. The summer work is 



466 HISTORY OF 

done. The kindly fruits of the earth have been safely gathered and 
stored. All have many blessing.s for which to be thankful. Not 
only have we a free government, civil and religious liberty, free 
education, peace, and national prosperity secured to us, for we are 
a favored people. "God hath not dealt so with any nation," but 
every one of the more than a million families, and every individual 
that sits down on this day, to a bounteous table, have each their 
own peculiar blessings to be thankful for. 

Thanksgiving day I What memories of the long gone child- 
hood's years cluster about the day! Joyful memories of the great 
fires on the old homestead hearth — the groaning table — grand- 
parents, fathers and mothers, kindred and children, gathered home 
again, all Joyful and happy in reunion, the old halls resounding 
again with the voices of other years. Sad memories, too, come to 
some, of the old home, now far away, perhaps beyond the sea, per- 
haps the old hearth desolate, the family circle broken, never to be 
united again, until all shall be gathered on the other shore. 

Be it ours, good reader, to plant in this new. western land, this 
custom of the fathers, that we and our children and kindred, may, 
in spirit and true thankfulness, enjoy this holiday. 

THE WINTER. 

And now the winter, as in every preceding year, has come 
again. The Psalmist says of Him who rules the seasons: 

'■He giveth snow like wool." 

"He scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes," 

"He casteth forth his ici.' like morsels." 

The fields are desolate and vegetation dead. The trees stand 
up naked and brown. The lakes and streams are frozen over. The 
earth is wrapped in its winding sheet of snow and ice, and the cold 
winds sweep far and wide o'er field and forest. The sun is far down 
the southern sky, and dim and cold, while the heavens are dark and 
gloomy, with heavy, hurrying clouds, and the day is soon done, and 
the nights are long. The flowers are withered and scattered. The 
birds have flown to more genial climes. The insect world is heard 
and seen no more. Old King Boreas now rules the land with storm 
and tempest. In the home, closed doors and windows and warm 
fires ai*e the necessity. But it is not thus all the time in winter. 
The severity of Minnesota winters has often been grossly exagger- 
ated. Many days the sun shines all day long and the atmosphere 
is mild and the storms are hushed. In this vast Northwest, as the 
years roll on, and the country becomes settled and improved, the 
winters have become milder and shorter. 

But winter, as every other season, has its uses and its pleas- 
ures. Old mother earth rests from her labors of production. The 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 467 

atmosphere is changed and charged with new elements, necessary 
to healthful living, foul gasses and odors and malaria are destroyed. 
And "the snow, the beautiful snow." Job (xxxviii: 2ti), neaiiy 
entered four thousand years ago, asked the question, "Has't thou 
into the treasures of the snow?" It has long been known that the 
snow is the poor man's fertilizer of the soil. It brings down to the 
earth, from the upper air, and deposits many elements, that enrich 
the fields. The snow mantle protects the plant life and roots, in the 
soil, from the effects of extreme changes. It gives moisture and 
helps dissolve and refine and enrich the soil. Yes, the snow has its 
treasures. A good, heavy coat of snow, in its proper season, is one 
of the farmer's best friends. 

But the winter, with all its cold and storms, is not here a dread 
and dreary season. It is here a period of great business activity, of 
much profitable work and of social neighborhood and domestic en- 
joyments. This is the season which embraces Christmas and New 
Year's, as happy a period of geneality, generosity and jollity as the 
year affords. It is the season of lectures and the drama, of indoor 
festivals, of parties and balls, of sleighriding and skating, of good 
church and school work, the season of nervous energy and activity, 
of clear brain and the ruddy cheek. The winter is necessary and 
enjoyable and all right, in its proper time, but he who allows his 
heart and sympathies to be frozen, and makes a gloomy, unhappy 
winter within himself, is what is wrong. 

Let the snows fall and the drifts pile up, and tempests howl, 
but be ready for them, in the home, in the barns, in the places of 
business, and help those to be ready, also, with shelter and food and 
raiment, who cannot help themselves, and all will be well. 

But it is time to close the record of this year. It is already long, 
and, indeed, there is nothing more to add, except this little story, 
and then it is certainly finished. Not another line shall be added. 

"A certain well-known bishop was in the habit of pausing frequently in his 
sermon, poising his linger on the desk before hitu, and drawing a long breath 
before recommencing. A little boy in the congregation became very impatient 
of the long service, and was often admonished by his mother. At length, 
seeing that the child's impatience was increasing, she whispered, during one of 
the pauses, 'Be quiet, he is almost through.' 'No he isn't,' said the little fellow, 
'he is swelling up again.' " 



468 HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER XXV. 

A. D. 1879. 

We now enter upon the record of the twenty- fifth and last year 
of this volume of our history. Twenty four years have passed in 
review before us, which, with this, completes the recoi'd of the first 
quarter of a century of the existence of our county. 

As an introduction to the events of the opening year, these 
three occurrances are presented. The winter term of the district 
court began on January 7th. Hon. D. A. Dicliinson, judge. There 
were ten criminal and thirty -two civil cases on the calendar. The 
term continued thirteen days, and there were many important cases 
tried, but none of historical interest. 

The board cf county commissioners met on tlie seventh of .Janu- 
ary. A. H. BuUis was elected chairman for the year. The board 
met subsequently on March 4th, June 3d and July 21st, the latter 
session being the last of the year. The record of these meetings 
shows only routine business. The other members of the board, at 
this time, were David Catlin, J. R. Sisson, F. E. Gary and H. A. 
Woolery, clerk. W. W. White. 

At an adjourned meeting of the agricultural society, held at 
Blue Earth City, on the fourteenth day of January, John Franklin 
was elected president; C. H. Slocum. secretary, and F. W. Temple, 
treasurer. Mr. Franldin died in July following, when the vacancy 
in the office of president was filled by the appoinment of S. Pfeffer. 

Let us now adjourn to the capital of the state and learn what 
was being done by the legislature now in .session, relating to our 
county. The acts passed at this session, were the following: 

"An act to incorporate the village of Blue Earth City." 
"An act to amend the act incorporating the village of Wells." 
"An act to amend an act incorporating the village of Winnebago City." 
"An act to authorize the county commissioners of this county to issue 
bonds for the purpose of liuilding a jail." 

No vote was taken, or bonds issued under this act, the funds 
necessary being raised by ordinary levy of tax. 

"An act to detach certain territory from the village of Minnesota Lake in 
this county." 

"An act to declare the act to incorporate the village of Winnebago City a 
public act." 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 469 

Our members of the legislature for this year were R. B. John- 
son, in the Senate, and J. P. West and T. S. Wroolie, in the House. 

James B. Wakefield, lieutenant-governor, was again, and for 
the last time, president of the senate. 

Master West, a son of our member, J. P. West, was appointed 
one of the messengers of the House. 

At the close of the session, a highly complimentary resolution 
of thanks to Mr. Wakefield, was unanimously adopted by the Senate, 
for the courteous, impartial and able manner in which he had pre- 
sided over that body. 

And now, returning to the county, we find that about the 
twentieth of March, the ground was in splendid condition for seed- 
ing, and the work was commenced in earnest. The weather was 
very fine, and the seeding of small grain was done very successfully. 

THE BEE KEEPERS. 

" — So work the honey bees; 
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach 
The art of order to a peopled ki ngdom." — Shakespeare. 

Bee keeping having become an important item in the productive 
industry of the county, as may be seen by reference to the official 
reports of the production of honey, the bee keepers concluded 
that they should like to see and talk with each other, and discuss 
bee interests, hence, after public notice given in the various county 
papers, they assembled at Blue Earth City, on the twenty-fifth day of 
March, and organized the "Faribault County Bee Keepers' Associa- 
tion." A. R. More, Sr., of Pilot Grove, was elected president; R. 
N. Fiero, of Verona, vice president; F. E. Carey, of Blue Earth 
City, treasurer, and D. B. Thurston, of the latter place, secretary. 
Among the subjects discussed at the meeting were the following: 
"Wintering Bees," "Hives," "Varieties of Bees," "Swarming." 
The meeting proved interesting and profitable. 

On the third day of June another meeting was held at Blue 
Earth City, at which J. P. West, of Wells, delivered an interesting 
and instructive address on the subject of bees. 

It is stated that there are in the United States two million hives 
of bees, and that the estimated annual revenue from them reaches 
the great sum of $14,000,000. There are several newspapers pub- 
lished in the United States, devoted to this interest, among which 
the Bee Keepers' Journal is a prominent one. 

The statistical reports, for this year, show that we had 284 hives 
of bees, which produced 5,208 pounds of honey. The reports of the 
preceding year, however, show 432 hives, which is probably more 
nearly correct, but still below the actual number of hives. 



470 HI STORY OF 

THE SUN. 

On the third day of May, a new paper, named The Sun, with the 
legend, "It shines for all," was issued at Winnebago City— Col. Wm. 
Allen, editor and proprietor. It was a seven-column folio, neatly 
printed. The outsides were "homespun," inside pages "patent." 

THE NINTH SESSION OF THE S. S. ASSOCIATION. 

The County Sunday School Association met at Wells, on the 
21st and 22d days of May, this being the nintli annual session. The 
meeting was largely attended and the session was very interesting. 
A great majority of the schools were represented, and the reports 
showed the general prosperity of the schools throughout the county. 

The following named officers were elected for the ensuing year. 

President — O. P. Southwick. 

Vice-President — Geo. O. Hanuum. 

Secretary — N. West. 

Treasurer — D. B. Thurston. 

Central Committee— R. W. Richards, I. S. Dodd, Mrs. H. C. 
Cheadle. Mrs. W. W. White. 

This Association has gradually grown with the passing years, 
until it has become an institution of great interest, large member- 
ship and extended beneficence. 

Two suggestions may here be offered: The adoption of a more 
complete constitution and organization, is demanded by the interests 
of the society and its continued usefulness, and should be considered 
at an early day. Some more efficient method should be devised for 
obtaining more full and correct reports from ihe Sunday schools, 
throughout the county. The experience of years has developed the 
fact, that one great difficulty in the way of the efficient work of both 
the State and county associations is found, in not obtaining full and 
reliable reports, and without them no satisfactory evidence is at 
hand, indicating the condition and progress of the work. 

To illustrate this fact, it may be stated that the State Commis- 
sioner of Statistics reported this county as having, in 1877, but one 
Sunday school! No more than this had been reported to the State 
society, and thus our county appeared before the world, or to a non- 
resident looking for our institutions, as a sort of barbarous region, oc- 
cupied by some twelve thousand people, among whom, the mission- 
aries, so to speak, at the peril of their lives, probably, had succeeded 
in planting one Sunday school! Let us have better reports than 
this. 

After careful inquiry the writer is able to state that there were 
in this county during this year, 1879, fifty regularly organized Sun- 
day schools, and that many of these were large and well conducted 
schools. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 471 

And now as a parting word it may be said that our county- 
should be proud of our Sunday School Association, and of the ear- 
nestness, intelligence and efficiency of our Sunday school workers. 
May the Heavenly Father prosper the Association, and bless abun- 
dantly all its members and all workers in this good cause. 

IMMIGRATION. 

The immigration which usually commences in May, was very 
extraordinary this year. It seemed as though the majority of the 
people of the east and south were emigrating to the western states 
and territories. Immigration is. of course, one of the greatest ele- 
ments in thie progress and prosperity of the west. 

The foreign immigration during the year, to our shores, was 
also very great, and was peculiar in the fact that it embraced 
thousands of skilled artisans in all trades, who sought the better 
remuneration offered in this country. It was estimated that over 
three hundred thousand people emigrated to new homes west of 
the Mississippi during the year. This county received a share 
of this great influx of population, but not so large a proportion as 
it should, considering the many advantages the county had to offer 
to new comers, especially farmers. 

Hundreds of land hunters passed over lands, more fertile and 
cheaper, here, than any they found further west. 

THE COURT AND THE BAR. 

The summer term of the district court commenced June 3d. The 
calendar exhibited twenty-four criminal and twenty-one civil cases. 
This was the first time in our history that the criminal exceeded the 
civil calendar. But this fact must not be taken as indicating the 
increase of crime in our midst. None of these cases were capital, 
and most of them were of petty importance. The term continued 
eleven days. A special term was also held this year, in October, of 
four days. 

The following statements as to the constitution of the court, 
the names of the members of the P^aribault County Bar, and a few 
remarks in reference thereto, may interest some reader of the 
history of the last year of this volume. 

THE DISTRICT COURT OP FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINN. 
.TUNE TERM, 1879. 

Presiding— Hon. D. A. Dickinson, judge. 

Officers of Court— M. W. Greene, county attorney; H. J. Neal, cleric; M. B. 
Pratt, shieriff; H. A. Ctiase and Q. J. Adams, bailiffs. 

Faribault County Bar— Abbott, S. J.. Winnebago City; Buswell, Geo. W., 
Blue Earth City; Dunn, A. C, Winnebago City; Goodrich, D. F., Blue Earth 
City; Graham, S. W,, Blue Earth City; Greene, M. W., Wells; Keister, J. A., 



•172 HISTOny (IF 

Blue Earth City: Kinusley, Geo. K, Blue Earth City; Mell, J. V., Winnobat,'" 
City; Reynolds, lienj. G , Winneba^'o City; Radford, C. H., Winnebago City; 
Sprout, J. H., Blue Earth City; West. J. P., Wells; Watson, F. E., Wells; 
Wak.'Beld, J. B., Blue Earth City; Wilkinson, M. S., Wells. 

Terms of Court— First Tuesday In January llrst Tuesday in Juue. 

No Bar association has ever been formed in this countj' and the 
nearest approach to any concerted or associate action of the mem- 
bers of the Bar, occurred in 1872, when a fee bill was agreed upon 
by a majority of the attorneys in practice at the time. The Bar of 
this county, in learning and ability, and the reputation of its mem- 
bers for integrity and efficiency, compares favorably with the best 
average Bars of the State. Nor have the members of our Bar been 
wanting in public official honors, and we are a little proud to set 
forth here, though briefly, this very honorable record: 

One has been a county superintendent of schools, and later a 
member of the lower house of our legislature. Another has been 
once assistant and twice chief clerk of the lower house of the legis- 
lature. Another has been thrice chief clerk of the lower house of 
the legislature, and once secretary of the State senate, county at- 
torney and once a member of the lower house. Another, twice State 
senator and president jjro tempore of the senate. Another, a mem- 
ber of the lower house of the State legislature. Another, who was 
twice county attorne.y. Another, who was register of deeds, county 
attorney, judge of probate and member of the lower house of our 
legislature, and four years State senator. Another, who was mem- 
ber of the lower house and clerk of the district court for four years. 

Another, who was a Judge of probate court in the state of 
Ohio. Another, who subsequent to this year, became county attor- 
ney for two terms. Another, who was four times successively 
county attorney. Another, who was three times a member of the 
lower house of the legislature and once State senator, and after- 
wards deputy public Examiner. Another, who was several times 
a member of the lower house of the legislature, once speaker of the 
House, twice State senator, twice lieutenant governor and presi- 
dent of the senate, and afterwards member of congress for two 
terms. Another, who has been a number of times a member of each 
House of our State legislature, member of congress, and United 
States senator for six years. 

The writer ventures the assertion that there is not another Bar 
in the State, outside of the cities, which can make a better showing 
of official honors than ours. 

INDEPENDENCE DAY. 

The Fourth of July was appropriately commemorated at Win- 
nebago City where Dr. Everts, of Rushford. was the orator. 

At Easton, the day was celebrated with much enthusiasm. 
Daniel P. Goodrich, of Blue Earth City, delivered the address. A 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 473 

rag a-muffin parade, ball playing, horse racing and a dance in the 
evening filled up the list of amusements of the day. 

The day was also remembered by a celebration in the town of 
Seeley. Music, recitations by the members of the several classes of 
the Sunday school, and an address by the Rev. M. Nichols, of Win- 
nebago City, was the intellectual program. A rag-a-muffin exhibi- 
tion — games of ball and a dance lasting all night, in a bow- house 
erected for the purpose, were incidents of this celebration. 

It is said that the first national salute in the South, since the 
war of the rebellion, was fired at Charleston, S. C, on the fourth 
day of July, of this year, and that the day was generally celebrated 
throughout the South, as well as in the North. 

A thought — At the time of the first Fourth of July — that of 1776 — 
the territory now embraced within the limits of our county was 
little known to the world, and its only occupants were wild beasts 
and savages. Now, at the one hundred and third anniversary of the 
day, we find it commemorated here by thousands of enlightened, 
patriotic people. Who will be here, and what will be the advance- 
ment in civilization, of those assembled to commemorate this day, on 
the two hundred and third anniversary? 

Oh! wonderous land! The hope of the world! 

The last nation spoken of in prophecy! 

Thou, dimly foreshadowed in the mysterious visions of 

the Apocalypse! 
The last home on earth, of the Church Militant! 
The fifth and last nation of universal worldly empire, 

but thine being of political principles!" 

"The first four acts already past, 
The fifth shall close the drama with a day. 

"Thy reign is the last, the noblest of time, 
Most fruitful thy soil, most inviting thy clime; 
May the crimes of the east ne'er encrimson thy name, 
Be Freedom and Science and Virtue thy fame." 

TEMPERANCE. 

The visit of the Rev. G. S. Allen, a distinguished temperance 
lecturer, to this county, during this year, was greatly beneficial, in 
the revival of the temperance cause, and led to the better organiza- 
tion of those who desired to promote the interests of this good 
cause, and a wider and more earnest and more influential work. 

On the eighth day of July, a convention was held, at Blue Earth 
City, when a county temperance society, under the name of the 
"Order of the Blue Ribbon," was organized. Geo. B. Kingsley was 
elected jDresident, H. W. Holley, secretary, Geo. D. McArthur, treas- 
urer. A vice president, for each township, was also chosen. A 
number of resolutions were adopted, expressive of the views of the 
convention, on the subject of temperance. But a more important 



474 HfSTOnV OF 

and more permanent work, which occurred the same day. was the 
organization of a county society of the "Women's Christian Tem- 
perance Union." Of this society, Mrs. H. C. Cheadle, of Blue Earth 
City, was elected president. Mrs. H. McKinstry, of Winnebago 
City, corresponding secretary, Mrs. C. H. Dearborn, of Blue Earth 
City, recording secretary, and Mrs. H. W. Holley, of Winnebago 
City, treasurer. 

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union is one of the most 
sincere, unselfish, devoted, and white-souled societies which exist 
on earth. Thesociety is widely spread, permanent, unsectarian. and 
is made up of Christian women who want to do work for the great 
Master. It has no methods, or principles, but such as the most 
Christian man. or woman, can approve. It asks no pecuniary re- 
compense for its labor, and is constantly at work, if not in one place, 
in another, filling its mission to the world. No more efficient or 
beneficent institution is known to this age. 

The temperance cause in this county, as in many others, has 
had its periods of success and failure. There have been times, when 
intoxicating liquors were not sold by public authority, and a drunken 
man was rarely seen, and there have been other periods, when in 
almost all the villages licenses were granted to engage in this busi- 
ness, and drinking indulged in by many, and drunken men were 
frequently seen on the public streets. Temperance oi-ganizations, 
of some kind, have existed at all times, in the county, since 1860, 
when the first society was instituted, which have, at times, been 
very active, and at others, indolent. Such is the experience every- 
where. But there has been no thought, at any time, that this good 
cause would be abandoned. The world, even small localities, can- 
not afford that the cause of temperance should ever be entirely 
abandoned, until its purposes have been attained. What would the 
world be to day if there had not been, and was not now, great work 
being done in this cause? The writer does not intend here to dis- 
cuss the subject of temperance, but deems it well to make a few ob- 
servations in reference to the overwhelming evils of intemperance, 
as they are known at this day, and the remarks will be brief. 

Intemperance in the use of intoxicating liquors (and may not 
any use as a beverage be intemperate), is certainly one of the great- 
est (if not in fact the chief) of the evils existing in this age, and it 
has no redeeming features. It sinks its hundreds of millions of dol- 
lars annually, fills the world with widows and orphans and beggary, 
demoralization and crime, and stocks the earth with drunkards' 
graves. Well ascertained facts show that in our own country over 
five hundred millions of dollars are wasted, annually, by those who 
expend their money for drink, that three fourths of the crimes that 
are committed. and more than ouo-half of the pauperism of the nation 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 475 

and the enormous expenditures of public money, rendered necessary 
by these two facts, originated from the curse of intemperance. 
Alas! the wasted resources! But this is not all. The worst features 
of this great evil are not yet told. Let the reader ponder for a 
moment, and there may appear to him, as in a vision, the mighty 
drunken procession of more than a hundred thousand of our own 
people, who are annually marching onward and downward besotted, 
staggering, swearing, jabbering, howling, fighting, murdering, to 
that awful precipice of destruction, down which they plunge and 
disappear, that precipice, over which is written, in letters of fire, 
the terrible sentence, "No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of 
God." Gal. v:21. Almighty Father! what must be the final destiny 
of all these immortal souls? Certainly the cry of "radical" and "fa- 
natic" and "crank" is unnatural and inhuman here, when applied to 
temperance workers. If these word s have any definite meaning, surely 
they are more applicable to the users of intoxicants and the supporters 
of the liquor traffic. It must be true that if this intolerable burden of 
intemperance could be lifted from the people, the world would step 
forward and upward, at once, a hundred or more years, toward the 
millennium. And in view of all these facts is it too much to say that 
no man, but one whose intellect is defective, or besotted, or filled 
with the sophistries of satan. or whose morals are greatly depraved, 
or who is the enemy of God and of the human race, can stand up 
before intelligent men, in this enlightened age and defend the traffic 
in, and use of. intoxicating liquors in any of their phases? 

THE GOLDEN REWARD. 

The harvest commenced July 25th, and the weather was the 
finest ever known in this country. The crops of this year were 
very good, and were early and well secured, and at fair expense. The 
prices of grain and other products were very satisfactory, and bet- 
ter than they had been for some years, and new life and energy, as 
a result, were everywhere appai'ent. This was a year of prosperity 
for the farmers. The following item, taken from a newspaper, rep- 
resents the condition of the crops throughout the country. 

"The year 1879 will pass ioto American history as a year of wonderful agri- 
cultural prosperity. The cotton crop is larger by half a million bales than ever 
before; the tobacco crop 12,000,000 pounds greater, and the sugar crop exceeds, 
by some 200,000 hogsheads, all previous yields. These are crops which belong, 
almost exclusively, to the southern half of the republic. In behalf of the 
northern states, the excess of products this year over the crops of any previous 
year is, according to the Chicago Journal of Commerce, 20,000,000 bushels of 
wheat and from 80,000,000 to 100,000,000 bushels of corn. The hog crop also Is 
larger this year than for a number of years past— if it be not the largest ever 
raised." 

During the period covered by this history, a great and hajipy 
change came over the conditions of farm life affecting the greater 



476 . niSTOHY OF 

portion of our people, by the introduction of improved farm machin- 
ery. Twenlyfive years ago, the scythe and the grain cradle were 
still used, to some extent, and the reapers and mowers and plows 
and threshers, then used, were quite imperfect. When the harvest 
came, a horde of men had to be employed, at two dollars to three 
dollars a '^ay, in cash, besides boarding and lodging. To harvest a 
field of seventy to one hundred acres of small grain was a great 
work of weeks, which wore out men in the field and tired out women 
in the house. To-day how different ! The farmer gets up on the 
seat, on his splendid harvester, gathers up the reins, and drives 
into his field of one hundred acres, his harvester smoothly cutting 
and binding the grain, and in six or eight days, with the aid of one 
or two hired hands, the grain is all in the shock, and the usual quiet 
and comfort has reigned about the dwelling. No extra preparations 
or labor having been reciuired. The farmer may now, too, use his 
sulky plow, either single or gang, and turn over more land, and do 
it better, in a day, than he formerly could in two or three weaiy 
days of incessant tramping. With his mower and horse- rake, he 
can put up more hay in a day, alone, than he could in the old times 
in two or three days, with the aid of two or three hands. And when 
the threshing comes, that great work so much dreaded, the great 
horse-iJower, or the steam thresher, puts in its appearance and 
makes a holiday work, lasting a few days, of the largest job. The 
fanner has become muster, instead of being, as formerly, the slave of his 
work. 

HUNTLEY. 

Sometime during the month of August, another village ap- 
peared on the map of the county, situated on section seven, in the 
town of Verona. It is a station on the Southern Minnesota Rail- 
road, and was named Huntley. This is our seventh village, and 
will be referred to more fully in another part of this work. 

THE TWENTY-FIRST FAIR. 

The annual fair of the Agricultural Society was held on the 
grounds of the society, near Blue Earth City, on the l^th, 19th and 
20th days of September. The weather was very fine, the attendance 
large, the exhibition very creditable, and financially, the fair was a suc- 
cess. Twenty years previous to this, the first fair was held at Winne- 
bago City, being the first of the society, and the first in the county. 
The first and the last were both successes. The principal differ- 
ences between the two, existed in these facts— that the first was 
held in a hall and on grounds hired temporarily, the last on per- 
manently leased grounds, well enclosed, having a permanent race 
track and buildings belonging to the society. At the last, the at- 
tendance was much more numerous, and the receipts far greater — a 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 477 

great variety of fruits were exhibited, considerable blooded stock 
and greatly improved machinery appeared. 

Something of a new feature in premiums was introduced this 
year, that of giving as a premium in many cases, a year's subscrip- 
tion to some leading agricultural journal, as the Prairie Farmer, 
Rural New Yorker, American Agriculturist, Farmer's Union, and others. 
The person entitled to a premium could have his choice. This was 
an excellent idea and should be carried out more fully. Approved 
books on agricultural subjects, might be added. A premium of one 
to five dollars in money, soon disappears, while a good paper or 
book is something of lasting value. 

THE BATTLE OF THE BALLOTS. 

At the general election of this year, in addition to a number of 
county officers, a Governor and several other State officers, were to 
be elected. John S. Pillsbury, was the republican candidate for 
governor. Edmund Rice, was the democratic, and W. W. Satterlee, 
the temperance candidates for the same office. 

The Republican County Convention was held at Blue Earth 
City, on the twenty -seventh of September. J. P. West, of Wells, 
was chairman, and D. F. Goodrich, of Blue Earth City, secretary. 
The following nominations were made: 

Anthony Anderson, for Treasurer. 

Allen Cummings, for Sheriff. 

J. A. Kiester, for Judge of Probate and Court Commissioner. 

B. G. Reynolds, for County Attorney. 

J. H. Burmester, for County Commissioner, 3d District. 

The Democratic County Convention assembled at Blue Earth 
City, October the 4th. Capt. P. B. Davy, of Blue Earth City, was 
elected chairman, and C. H. Radford, of Winnebago City, secretary, 
after which the following nominations wei-e made: 

For Treasurer — Otto Kaupp. 

For Sheriff— A. B. Davis. 

For County Attorney— M. S. Wilkinson. 

For Judge of Probate and Court Commissioner — J. A. Kiester, 
endorsed. 

On the eleventh day of the same month the Greenbackers, more 
properly named the "Nationals," met at Blue Earth City, in mass 
convention. A. H. BuUis, of Verona, was made chairman, and C. S. 
Dunbar, of Foster, secretary. A central county committee was ap- 
pointed, but no nominations were made. The campaign of this 
year, in the matter of local offices, was a quiet one. The election 
was held November 4th. The following table exhibits the vote as 
officially canvassed. 



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FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 479 

DIPHTHERIA. 

A passing reference should be made here to the fact that diph- 
theria, one of the most terrible diseases, prevailed to an alarming 
extent in some portions of the county, during this year, and as the 
statistics of the year will show, many, especially children, died. 
This disease is epidemic, contagious, and it would seem that it is in 
certain phases, wholly incurable. The plague which desolated 
Europe at various times during the past centuries, and known as 
the "black death," "black tongue," was doubtless, but a virulent or 
malignant type of this disease. This is not the place to discuss the 
pathology, or diagnosis, of this terrible disease, nor to mention the 
remedies used for its cure, but it is well to sound the alarm here — 
beware! on the breaking out of this pestilence as you would be of 
the cholera. 

A SAD ITEM. 

About the sixth of October a terrible prairie fire started up and 
raged through the county, doing much damage. It had long been 
very dry, and high winds prevailing from the south, the fires were 
very fierce, and swept over large areas in a very short time. 

THE OLD SETTLERS' SOCIETY. 

On the tenth day of October of this year, which completes the 
first quarter of a century of the history of our county, the old set- 
tlers' society of the county was formed. The time had come when 
this was proper. Some of the first settlers of the county had al- 
ready passed away and others were growing old. The general pur- 
poses of the society are expressed in the preamble to the articles of 
organization, as follows: 

We, the old settlers of Faribault county, state of Minnesota, whose names 
are subscribed to these articles, desiring to form the old settlers of this county 
into an organized society, to renew and perpetuate old-time friendships; to cul- 
tivate sociability amonjj us; to promote a friendly interest in each other's wel- 
fare, and to provide for the annual re-union of the members of the society, do 
hereby ordain and agree to the following articles of organization and govern- 
ment. 

The society was organized by the election of officers and the 
adoption of articles of organization and government, as will apj)ear 
by the copy of the minutes of organization, appended hereto. As 
the first settler of the county was still living, and in many of the 
towns, the first settler of the town, was still living, it was a very 
proper and graceful thing to do, to choose the first settler of the 
county, Moses Sailor, Esq., the first president and the first known 
resident settler, of the several towns, vice presidents of the society, 
at its organization, and to exempt, as was the fact, all of the first 
board of officers, forever, from the payment of any membership 
fees, orannualdues. All persons who resided in the State, on, or prior 



480 HISTORY OF 

to the lirst day of June, 1860, and have lived in this county, at any 
time six months, are eligible to become members of the society. 
It was necessary that some year be designated, as the period which 
should divide the older from the later settlers of the county, for this 
purpose, otherwise, the society would be but a social club, without 
any distinctive character. And there is no year in our history, 
which could so properly be adopted, as 1860. That year was the 
beginning of a new decade, it was the first year of a national census, 
in this county, from which it may always be easily determined who 
were in the county prior to the census. It was a marked and mem- 
orable year in the history of the county, in that among other things, 
a groat change came over the manners and customs of the times 
and in the public affairs of the county — a new order of things, so to 
speak, was instituted. That year was also sufficiently remote, so 
that the society would not have too numerous a membership, and 
yet there were enough old settlers who came in prior to June of 
that year, still residing in the county, to form a sufficiently large 
society for many years. 

In fact many of the old settler's societies in the west, and else- 
where, are not designed to continue and embrace only a certain 
definite class, and are so organized that in course of time, they must 
necessarily, from the death of the particular class, become extinct. 
And such is a correct idea of an old settlers' society. While pro 
vision has been made in the articles of organization of our society, 
for fixing a later date than .Tune 1st, 18()0, when the society chooses 
so to do, yet many years should pass before such change should be 
made, and it should never be brought to a later date than June 1st, 
1865, which marks the final close of the civil war, and also the close 
of an important period in our local history. This would also make 
eligible to membership many resident veterans of the war who 
could not otherwise be included. We cannot forbear remarking the 
propriety of old settlers' societies. There are many of them through- 
out the west, and where instituted and properly conducted are highly 
appreciated. At these re-unions festivities and rejoicings are the 
order. Old memories are rehearsed, old social ties and interests re- 
newed and strengthened, kindly sympathies and feelings are awak- 
ened, and those who have stumbled or faltered in treading the path- 
way of life, receive new courage, new hope, to go forward. Those, 
too, are appropriately remembered, as the years go 'round, who have 
reached life's journey's end and gone to their final rest. 
■'Our early days! How often back 

We turn— on lifi''s bewildering track, 

To where o'er hill and valley plays 

The sunlight of our early day.s." 
The meetings of the society are to be held annually, in June of 
each year. Here is a copy of the record of organization. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 481 

"Pursuant to notice given in the several county papers, a number of the 
old settlers of Faribault county met at the court house, in Blue Earth City, at 
ten o'clock, a. m., on the twentieth day of October, A. D. 1879, for the purpose 
of organizing an old settlers' society. 

On motion, Lieutenant Governor James B. Wakefield was chosen chair- 
man, and P. B. Davy, secretary of the meeting. 

The chairman briefly stated the object of the meeting. 

On motion the chair appointed a committee consisting of J. A. Kiester, 
Henry Schuler and Otto Kaupp to prepare and report articles of organization 
and government of the society. 

The committee reported the preamble and articles hereto appended, and on 
motion the same was unanimously adopted. 

On motion of Mr. Schuler the meeting proceeded to the election of ofHcers, 
when the following named persons were unanimously elected viva voce, 
namely: 

For president — Moses Sailor, Esq., of Blue Earth City, the first settler of 
the county. 

For vice presidents — Ebenezer Crosby, of Winnebago City township; Thomas 
Blair, of Delavan township; Ozias C. Healey, of Lura township, Alvin Barber, 
of Minnesota Lake township; L. C. Taylor, of Dunbar township; C. R. Lord, of 
Clark township; Absalom Wilcox, of Walnut Lake township; Andrew Wcesner, 
of Barber township; George S. Miles, of Prescott township; Henry T. Stoddard, 
of Verona township; Burton Chute, of Jo Daviess township; Aaron Mudge, of 
Blue Earth City township; Henry Weber, of Emerald township; James Prior, of 
Brush Creek township; Abraham Ackerman, of Foster township; Joseph Wing, 
of Kiester township; Jacob E. Shirk, of Seely township; Ole Nelson, of Rome 
township; Allen Shultis, of Elmore township: Gilbert McClure, of Pilot Grove 
township. 

For Secretary— George B. Kingsley, of Blue Earth City. 

For Treasurer— William M. Scott, of Blue Earth City. 

For Chaplain— Rev. S. L. Rugg, of Seely. 

Elective members of executive committee— J. H. Welch, of Winnebago 
City; P. B. Davy, of Blue Earth City. 

Whereupon the chair declared "The Old Settlers' Society of Faribault 
County," duly organized. 

The following resolution was then adopted: 

Resolved, That the secretary cause to be printed, in convenient form, two 
hundred copies of the articles of organization and government, and present 
one copy to each member of the society, on application. 

No further business appearing, the meeting adjourned sine die amid many 
congratulations and pleasant anticipations of happy re-unions hereafter, of the 
old settlers of Faribault county. 

Attest: P. B. Davy, 

J. B. Wakefield, Secretary. 

Chairman. 

It is the hope of the writer that the society may secure the pur- 
poses of its institution, be ever prosperous, and that the annual 
meetings of the society may ever be occasions of great pleasure and 
profit to all who participate. It will be the duty of the historian 
of the future to note the annual meetings of the society, and 
chronicle the events and incidents of its progress. The writer 
of these pages must be content with having taken an active part 



482 EISTOUY OF 

in the institution of the society, having called the meeting for 
organization, and written the rules or regulation for the govern- 
ment of the society, and having now the pleasure of making an 
historical record of the event of the organization. 

RAILROAD OPENING AND EXCURSION. 

The thirtieth day of October.of this year, was a memorable day in 
the history of this county. On that day occurred the formal open- 
ing of the new north and south railroad, now completed from Blue 
Earth City, northward, to a connection at Lake Crystal with the 
main line of the St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad. It was deter- 
mined by the people of Blue Earth City to make this a grand event, 
and they accomplished it. No locality ever needed a railroad more 
than Blue Earth City, considering it circumstances, at the time. The 
people of no locality ever worked longer, or more persistently, or 
against greater discouragements to secure a road, than did the 
people of that village, and no people, in view of these and other 
facts, ever deserved to succeed, more than they. It was but natural 
that they should rejoice when success crowned their efforts, and 
that they should desire to signalize the event by some memorable 
demonstration. We cannot enter into an account of all the details 
of this event, but may state the general features. A committee of 
citizens was appointed to take charge of the matter, in connection 
with the city council. Securing the co-operation of the railroad 
company, the day was set. and invitations sent out to pi'ominent 
people all ai-ound the countrj' and along the line of the road, to St. 
Paul, to attend the celebration of this great event. A great dinner 
was prepared and spread upon two long tables in the new depot build- 
ing, and was in readiness when the guests arrived. About one o'clock, 
p.m., amid the thundering of cannon and waving of flags, a long train, 
bearing hundreds of invited guests, steamed up to the depot. On 
alighting, the guests were received with a hearty welcome, and con- 
ducted to seats at the tables. An address of welcome was then 
given by Capt. P. B. Davj', president of the city council, in well 
chosen words, which was responded to by Ex Senator Ramsey. 
Speeches were also made by Hon. Edmund Rice, Gen.* Sibley, Gen. 
Bishop, Ex-Senator Wilkinson and Lieut. Governor Wakefield. 
The day was fine, all the arrangements admirable, and the splendid 
programme perfectly carried out. 

It was a proud day for Blue Earth City, and the village appre- 
ciated it fully, and especially the fact of the attendance on the oc- 
casion, of the many distinguished men, some of national reputation, 
who came to participate in, and do honor, to the event But it was 
also an auspicious event for the whole county, even the State, for 
this line of road, passing, as it does, through the whole length of 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 483 

the Blue Earth and Minnesota river valleys, the best portion of 
Minnesota, to the very heart of the lumber manufacturing regions 
of the north, and southwest through a great portion of the great 
valley of the Des Moines, in Iowa, directly penetrating the great 
coal measures of that state — a line connecting the capitals of these 
two great states, must, at no distant day, become one of the great 
trunk lines of the northwest, and transact an immense business. 

Finally, it may be justly said, that the completion of this road 
perfected the fundamental structure of our local railroad system — 
one road passing through the county from east to west, and one at 
almost right angles, from north to south, provided for all time to 
come, egress and ingress, by connecting roads, in every direction. 

But the festivities, instituted to signalize the opening of this 
road, were not yet complete. The railroad company, and the good 
citizens of Mankato, appointed a free excursion, to take place on the 
twenty-tifth of November, for all the people of the Blue Earth val- 
ley, who choose to accept it, and on that day vast numbers of people, 
along the line of the road, took passage on the trains, and visited 
Mankato, where they were most hospitably and royally entertained, 
free of all cost. A great public dinner, given by the city to all vis- 
itors, was the great feature of the day. 

A REMARKABLE OCTOBER. 

The weather of October, 1879, was remarkable. During twenty 
years, no such an October had been known. The thermometer often, 
during the month, indicated more than 80° in the shade. The ques- 
tion was often asked, "Well, is the summer going to last all winter?" 
The temperature, during the entire month, was much like that of 
July. In some portions of the country warm showers of rain fell, 
causing vegetation to take a new start, and wild prairie grass com- 
menced to grow again, and appeared quite green on sward that had 
been burned off early. At one place in the State, ripe raspberries 
were picked on the eighth of October. Even the mosquitoes which 
had retired for the year, put in an appearance again, and resumed 
business. One individual who had expended some |300 in advertis- 
ing a new heating stove, declared that the weather was all out of 
tune, and simply exasperating. 

THE "TIMES," AND OTHER COUNTY PAPERS. 

On the eighteenth day of November, the Winnebago City Press, 
which had been published at that place for about six years, ceased; 
the ofiice and material having been purchased by the proprietor of 
the Su7i. A new paper named the Winnebacjo City Times, successor 
to the Press, appeared December 6th. It was a large, eight column 
folio; Messrs. Allen & Sherin, editors and proprietors. It was 



484 HISTORY OF 

printed on the auxiliary plan. Subscription price *1.50 per annum. 
This being the closing year of this volume of this history, it may be 
stated that the newspapers published in the county, at the close of 
the year, were the Blue Earth City Post, and the liee, at Blue Earth 
City, the Winnebago City Time.i, above named, at Winnebago City. 
and the Wells Advocate, at Wells. 

THE LAST FIGURING UP. 

The statistics for the year are very full and complete, and being 
the last we shall present, are made up with care. And here, first, 
are our farm products for the year: 

Wheat, 556,696 bushels; oats, 570,52,3 bushels; corn, 655,647 bushels: barley, 
41,141 bushels; rye, 105 bushels; buckwheat, 412 bushels: potatoes, 67,765 bush- 
els; beans, 176 bushels; sorghum syrup, 19,096 gallons; cultivated hay, 4,066 tons; 
flax seed, 6,652 bushels; timothy seed, 426 bushels; tobacco, 507 lbs.; butter, 
pounds produced, 524,080: cheese, pounds produced, 14,250; wool, pounds 
grown, 56,467. 

The writer has no hesitation in saying, that there should be 
added, as least, thirty per cent to all of the above amounts, to bring 
the several productions up to what they really were. 

Live Stock— Horses, total of all ages, 5,942; cattle, total of all ages, 15,495; 
sheep, 13,294; hogs, 6,675; milch cows, 6,419. 

There should be added, also, to each of these aggregates, twenty 
per cent at least. 

Miscellaneous— Land surface, acres, 454,723.59; taxable land, acres, 398,240; 
number of farms, 1,254; cultivated acres, 90,028; taxable valuation, real and 
personal property, $4,199,612; forest trees, planted this year, 3,029; forest trees 
planted along highways, rods, 48,365. 

Public Schools— Number of school districts, 108; number of school houses, 
77; number of scholars enrolled, 4,201. 

VITAL. 

During the year there were in the county 383 births and 191 
deaths. Of the deaths reported. 68 were caused by diphtheria. There 
were nine deaths of persons between 60 and 70 years of age, seven 
between 70 and 80, and six between 80 and 90 years of age. There 
were 125 marriages and but two divorces. 

Fruit— Apple trees growing, 38,880; trees bearing, 7,622; bushels pro- 
duced, 314. 

Manufactures (Census of 1880)— Capital employed, $100,200; hands em- 
ployed, 73; Paid in wages, $31,072; value of products, $449,532. 

Population (Census of 1880)— Males, 6,875; females, 6,140; total, 13,015. 
Native born, 9,874; foreign born, 3,141. 

CHRISTMAS — DECEMBER 25TH. 

The Christmas festival, December 25th, now a legal- holiday re- 
cognized in the laws of most of the states, was, in this year, 1879. 
more generally and elaborately observed throughout the whole 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 485 

country than it had been for years. This great day of the Christian 
year is, everywhere, getting to receive its proper recognition. 
While the Christmas day of this year was, undoubtedly, the mer- 
riest Christmas ever known in this country, it was, also, in this 
county, the coldest. The thermometer marked from thirty to forty 
degrees below zero, and a strong wind blew, the whole day; but 
these facts did not interfere, materially, with the festivities of the 
occasion. Long ago, Sir Walter Scott sang: 

"Heap on more wood— the wind is chill, 
But let it whistle as it will, 
We'll keep our Christmas merry, still." 

But Christmas time is not limited to one day — it embraces a 
number of days, and the period is known as Christmas tide, or a 
series of holidays, often named the Christmas holidays, of which 
Christmas is the great day. This period, or Christmas tide, com- 
mences, in most countries, as in our own, on Christmas eve, or the 
evening of the day before Christmas day, and extended, in former 
times, to the Epiphany, January 6th, thus including New Year's day. 
This great day is usually preceded by a week, or two, of bright an- 
ticipations and busy preparations for the time. And we are happy 
to record the fact, that this sacred, festive day and period, has been 
observed every recurring year, in some manner, in this county from 
its first settlement. 

Merry Chrismas! the holiday of all Christian nations, limited to 
no sect, or class, the property of no one. people, it is observed uni- 
versally, wherever the name of Christ is known. As Christ lived and 
died and reigneth for all, so is Christmas for all, and it needs no 
proclamation of president or emperor to command its observance, 
or give notice of its coming. All the world knows when it comes, 
and from the gray-haired sire to the little child, is looked forward 
to with joyful hopes and pleasant anticipations. The writer' cannot 
i-esist the impulse to say something more of this day, for the bene- 
fit, especially, of our younger readers. What means this day which 
brings such general rejoicing? Let us go back through the mists 
of nearly nineteen hundred years, and to the sacred soil of old 
Judea. We stand here in the quiet, starry night, surrounded by the 
shepherds, watching their flocks. Busy life is stilled. A holy 
peace reigneth here, and we are alone with God and nature. 

"Wonderful night! Wonderful night! 
Angels and shining immortals 
Thronging thine ebony portals, 
Fling out their banners of light." 

Look upwardi behold! the wonderous radiant being! the Angel of the Lord 
Is here. Hear the voice of the Heavenly messenger, as he speaks: "Fear not, 
for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 



486 HISTORY OF 

For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ 
the Lord." Luke ii: 8, 9, 10, 11. 

"Hark! A burst of Heavenly music, 

From a band of Seraphs brl(;ht, 

Suddenly to earth descendiiiK, 

In the calm and silent night. 

To these shepherds of .Tudea, 

Watching in the earliest dawn 

Lo! they bring the joyful tidings, 

Jesus, Prince of Peace is born." 
"Ah! listen to the grand angelic choral, as they praise God saying:" 
"'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward 
men.' "—Luke ii: lS-15. 

The foretold by the prophets of old. 

The desire of the nations— 

The light of the world. 

The world's Redeemer, has come! 

By angel messengers was announced to the world, 

This greatest event of time or eternity. 

And now down to us, through all the Christian centuries, has 
come the annual commemoration of the nativity, or birth of Jesus, 
the Messiah, the Prophet, Priest and King, the mighty Lord of All, 
and floating down to us, too, through the long gone centuries, come 
the triumphant songs of the angel choirs that sang together for 
joy. at our Savior's birth, filling earth and heaven with their melo- 
dies, repeated on earth, reechoed in heaven, at every annual com- 
memoration. How appropriate that this day should be celebrated with 
religious and domestic festivities, merry-making and general geniality, 
the healing of old feuds, the forgiveness of the past and the re-estab- 
lishment of friendships and love among all, for this day more than 
all others awakens all the highest religious sentiments and the purest 
domestic affections. For He who was born to-day, brought to us all 
that which makes life valuable in all its relations, and revealed to 
us immortality. And the man or women must indeed be bankrupt 
in faith and hope and love, or grown sordid, or bigoted, or soured 
with the world, who cannot appreciate and celebrate Christmas. 
Yet it is true, that certain religious bodies have, in the past, 
made but little of this day, commemorative of one of the greatest 
historical facts of the Christian religion, which they profess, and 
the old puritan forefathers, at one time, made it an offense, punish- 
able with fine, to observe Christmas, even by ceasing to work on 
that day. See here! "Whosoever shall be found observing any 
such day as Christmas, or the like, either by forbearing labor, 
feasting, or any other way * * * shall pay for every such of- 
fense, five shillings, as a fine, to the count}'." 1659, M. S. records, 
vol. 4, part first, page 336 General Court. But better views have 
long prevailed, and Christmas is coming to be generally observed 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 487 

by all religious bodies, in the spirit, and according to its time-hon- 
ored customs. 

And the growing love of our people, old and young, for this 
great festival, is evident, not only in its general observance, but in 
the happy anticipations and conduct of all. For weeks before the 
day we may see in the stores crowds of town and countryfolk, with 
cheerful faces, full of mysterious meaning, who are baying every- 
thing of art and taste and beauty, as Christmas gifts, to make the 
young happy, and to attest the love for friends and kindred. The 
purse strings, often so tightly drawn and knotted, come open now, 
and even the miser takes something from his savings to make some- 
one happy. Even the cynic, the ascetic, the sceptic, and that other 
great man. who from his high intellectual eminence, is wont to look 
down with contempt upon Christian teachings and customs gener- 
ally, as vain myths and superstitions, even these grow more genial, 
and offer a tribute on Christmas. 

So let it ever be. Christ was the best gift the world has ever re- 
ceived, so let the Christmas gift commemorate it. 

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that who- 
soever belie veth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii: 16. 

The primitive Christians celebrated this day "with great joy 
and triumph, the labors of life were suspended, the churches were 
crowded with joyful worshippers who sang their jubilant hymns and 
anthems, and it was their practice to adorn their churches with 
flowers, boughs, and garlands of evergreens," and such has been the 
custom in some branches of the church, through all the centuries 
to this day. Religious services at the place of holding public wor- 
ship, and the Christmas dinner, are now the great features of the 
day. For Christmas is a feast day in the church's calendar. Roast 
geese, plum puddings, and mince pies, are the proper, leading and 
historic dishes of Christmas, as turkey, pumpkin pie and baked beans 
are of Thanksgiving. Merry Christmas! Often called the children's 
festival, what day so dear to the heart of childhood as this? Ah, 
we are all children again on this happy day. Let us touch old mem- 
ories : 

" 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, 

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. 

The stoclfings were hung by the chimney with care 

la hope that St. Nicholas .soon would be there." 

And St. Nicholas, or Santa Claus, came too, from somewhere, 
perhaps from the far off regions of ether, noiselessly down the 
chimney, as tradition says, with his loads of gifts, and filled the 
stockings. 

Then, when can we ever forget the home and church decorations, 
or the family Christmas tree, or the great evergreen tree in thfe 



488 HISTORY OF 

church on Christmas eve, or the Sunday school, which has now so 
long and so properly been one of the great features of this festival? 
What a wonderful tree, with its lights and ornaments and generous 

pi'esents 

"The Christmas tree Is a bonnle tree, 
Strontf and straight and brave to see, 
Each branch and shoot from crown to root, 
Is clustered thick with rarest fruit, 
Such fruit as never on any shore, 
Was known to grow on a tree before."' 

HarkI how the voices burst forth, in the joyous carol, 

'Gather around the Christmas tree. 
Every bousjh bears a burden now. 
They are jiifts of love for us we trow, 
For Christ is born his love to show 
And give good gifts to men below." 

And let us not forget, on this day, greatest of all in its geniality 
and beneficence, the poor, the sick, the friendless. The^-, too, must 
be made to rejoice in the abundant charity and kindly sympathy of 
friend and neighbor. Let the waifs, the orphans, the homeless 
be hunted up, and made to share our abundance. And this must 
become the distinctive feature of this day. As we revere Him, who 
was the friend of the poor, and taught us that we must love our 
neighbors, as ourselves, that it is bettor to give than to receive, so 
must we on this glad day remember the poor, the needy, and the 
outcast. Merry Christmas I With what curious customs it has been 
kept through the centuries by the various nations. The queer 
songs, the gleeful carols and the great feasts, in the old baronial 
halls of Europe — the Christmas legends, the decorations, the holly- 
boughs and berries and the mistletoe, the Christmas flowers, the 
Yule logs and cheerful hearths, when the great fires "went roaring 
up the chimney wide," all rise in visions before us, and we hear 
again the sweet music of Christmas bells and chimes, but we cannot 
write of them here. 

As one after another of the human systems of philo.sophy from 
Hermes Tliismegistus, to our own day, which have sought, on the 
basis of mere reason and natural law, to provide for man's moral, 
government, improvement and elevation', fail, it becomes evident 
that Jesus Christ, the Christ life and Christ teachings afford the 
only assurance and hope of man's true progress and permanent hap- 
piness on earth, and this is the only power to unlock for him the 
gates of heaven. The world, indeed, has no influence, or power, 
even in its highest forms of civilization, nor in any of its systems 
of philosophy, or its more human systems of education, to produce 
the Christian life. That life is the fruit of grace. And none can 
come to the true knowledge of God, His will and His ways, but 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 489 

through this life and grace, as found, and found only, in Jesus the 
Christ. The whole record of our race but shows the truth of "the 
Scripture, that "other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, 
which is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. iii, 2), and if this fails, all fails, ah! 

then indeed! 

"The pillared flrmanient is rottenness, 
And earth's base built on stubble." 

Well indeed, may we ever celebrate our Lord's nativity, and 
sing with the poet: 

"While the angels wake the chorus, 
So let ransomed men reply, 
Chanting the celestial anthem, 
Glory be to God on high." 

And now to every reader, may you ever have a merry Christ- 
mas and a happy New Year. 

WINTER APPROACHES. 

The first snow of the season fell on the tenth of December, and 
was followed by some cold weather which inaugurated the winter 

of 1879-80. 

"When all aloud the wind doth blow, 
And coughing drowns the parson's saw, 
And birds sit brooding in the snow." 

COUP D'OEIL. 

Could we, in this year of grace, 1879, ascend to some sufficiently 
elevated station, on a bright summer day in August, and from thence 
cast a hasty glance over our county, what a beautiful scene would 
be spread out before as. First, perhaps, we should observe certain 
dark blue lines and curves, which indicate the native timber, bor- 
dering the many streams and the many crystal lakes, shimmering in 
the sunlight, like mirrors. And we should see over the wide reach- 
ing prairies innumerable groves and lines of forest trees which 
were not here when we first saw these fertile lands. And what are 
those dark straight lines which cross the field of view — one passing 
from east to west, another from north to south, and still another 
across the northeast corner of the county? Ah! These are rail- 
roads, and the long trains passing over them, indicate their business 
of travel and traffic. And see, scattered over the county the large 
tracts of cultivated lands, aggregating nearly one hundred thousand 
acres, divided into nearly thirteen hundred farms, on which you 
notice the many substantial farm-houses, barns and other structures, 
which tell of the prosperous home life of their owners. Scanning 
this wide field closer, we observe certain distinctly marked points, 
and these are the villages of the county — the marts of trade and 
centers of population in this good year. Blue Earth City, Winne- 



490 HISTORY OF 

bago City, Minnesota Lake, Wells, Delavan, Easton and Huntley — 
and each of these places is located on a railroad, and each sur- 
rounded by a beautiful, populous and fertile, tributary territory. 
But seel there is another kind of points, which indicate something 
else, and these are the United States post-offices located in the 
county; Alton, Banks, Blue Earth City, Brush Creek, Clayton, Cor- 
net. Delavan, Easton, Elmore, Emerald, Ewald, Grapeland, Home- 
dahl, Huntley, Minnesota Lake, Pilot Grove, Walnut Lake, Wells, 
and Winnebago City. And we observe, also, certain neat structures, 
very similar to each other, all over the county, and these are seventy- 
seven, or more, substantial district school houses. And we also see 
many buildings of a larger kind, with spires pointing always up- 
ward, and these are the many churches erected to the worship of 
God. And we see here too, grazing quietly, on the green grasses of 
this wide area, innumerable herds, large and small, of milch cows and 
other cattle, and horses and sheep, and wenotice hundreds of people 
busy at work in the fields and about the farm houses. And see those 
wide lines, stretching across the county in every direction. These 
ai-e the public highways, and you observe that they are well worked 
and well bridged, and upon them, going to and fro, are many people, 
traveling on business, or pleasure, droves of cattle, hogs and sheep, 
and the white covered wagons of the immigrants coming in to 
locate among us, or passing through, to more distant localities. 
How vastly changed is all this scene, from what it was, when we 
first beheld this region, a quarter of a century ago! And it is in- 
deed a goodly land. 

A NEW ERA. 

The year 1879 marked the beginning of a new era in the condi- 
tion of the whole counti-y — a period of returning prosperity and 
progress. 

For nearly ten years the country was passing through the 
most unparalleled depression in every branch of industry, as has 
been more fully detailed in some of the preceding years of this his- 
tory, but with the incoming of 1879 a new and better daj'^ dawned 
upon the country, and everywhere was heard the happy exclama- 
tion "the good times have come." And the evidences that such was 
the fact, were numerous, palpable and cheerful. This year saw every- 
where the revival of long stagnant business. On the first day of 
January, 1879, specie payment was resumed by the government, in 
pursuance of the act of congress passed several years before, fixing 
that day for resumption. That great event, looked forward to with 
great hopes by many and with fear by others, took place without 
causing the least excitement in the business world. Indeed resump- 
tion had practically taken effect some months before, as greenbacks 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 491 

were at par long before the day arrived. Our currency became ex- 
changeable, at par, in the markets of the world, with the money of 
the world. This event was the starting point in the financial and 
business revival. Money perfectly safe, became plenty, and 
sought investment. The furnace, the forge and the foundery went 
again to work, and the workers in iron and steel found their busi- 
ness recovering so rapidly from its long and great depression, that 
they were unable to supply the demand. Railroad building, which 
makes the great demand for iron, began with wonderful energy, and 
more miles of railroad were built in the Unined States, in this year, 
than in any year since 1873, the number of miles being 3,7381, and 
more would have been built, could the iron, which ran up to an enor- 
mous price, have been had. Over four hundred miles of railroad 
were built this year, in Minnesota. Some twenty of which were 
built in this county. 

Turning to commercial interests, it was said that on one bright 
day in June of this year, more steamers gathered in New York har- 
bor than had ever before been seen in that great mart of commerce. 
Our foreign trade had been, for several years, increasing, until now 
our exports far exceeded our imports, leaving a lai"ge balance of 
trade in our favor, causing the shipment to this country, of many 
millions of dollars in gold, to balance accounts. 

Our cotton factories all went to work again, running on full 
time, and our manufactures of all kinds were sent abroad more than 
ever before All these awakened industries created a demand for la- 
bor, which rapidly increased, and many thousands of working men, 
skilled and common laborers, who had for some years been out of 
employment, and had been reduced to great destitution, went to 
work again, on full time and full pay. 

The mines of precious metals, too, increased in their products. 
The Miner's Journal said, that during this year, American mines 
produced *80.000,000, and this great yield mainly stayed at home. 

As a result of all these favoring causes, the wholesale and retail 
trade of merchants also greatly revived. The demand for all kinds 
of manufactured goods increased rapidly, and millions of dollars' 
worth of goods, long stored in warehouses, were brought out and 
sold at good figures. But this is not all, nor the best of this summary 
of revived industries. In this happy year, that great industry 
which lies at the bottom of all real national prosperity, agriculture, 
was also highly favored in abundant harvests and fair prices 
throughout the nation. A number of years of bad harvests in 
Europe made a demand for a large share of our agricultural and 
other food products. Many millions of bushels of our surplus 
wheat, millions of pounds of beef, pork, hams, bacon, butter, cheese 
and tallow, were exported to foreign countries, the value of which 



492 HISTORY OF 

returned to us in gold, with which to build railroads, and inaugurate 
other great enterprises, which added to the general prosperity. This 
jirosperity of the agricultural interests was the chief element in the 
general prosperity of the country, making the revival of business 
in many other lines possible. But many causes, however, which 
cannot be named here, contributed to bring about this new era. 

Locally, our county shared in the general revival. A new spirit 
of enterprise and hopefulness was infused into the hearts and lives 
of the people. The hard years of scarcity of money, grasshoppers, 
short crops, small prices, seemed to have gone by, and all looked 
upon tlie future with great cheerfulness and confidence, and they 
were not disappointed. New lands were broken up, the trade of 
our merchants greatlj' extended; payments became prompt, wheat 
and other products brought fair prices,- two new railroad markets 
were established in the county, to the great convenience of large 
districts of country. A competing line of road was secured, many 
new structures were erected in the county, mechanics of all kinds 
found plenty of work, and money was plenty, and could be had on 
long or short time, at ten per cent, and even less. The better days, 
so long hoped for, had come, with an outlook for the future of the 
best assurances. And. notwithstanding the steady, sure, substan- 
tial, even rapid jirogress of our county, a progress manifest in each 
succeeding year, which the writer has had the pleasure of record- 
ing in these pages, made in face of many discouragements, it is, 
nevertheless, a most grateful task to him, to close this volume of 
our history with the record of a year of such activities, prosperity 
and bright prospects for the future as this, the last. And now — 

"Tho long clay's task is done, 
And we must sleep." 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOIA. 493 



PART SECOND. 



Brief Descriptive and Historical Sketches of the Several 
Townships in Faribault County, 31innesota. 



'Rise too, ye shapes and shadows of the past, 
Rise from your long forgotten graves at last, 
Let us behold your faces." * * * —Longfellow. 



PREFATORY REMARKS. 

In Part First of this work we have treated of those matters which 
pertain to the history of the county generally, and as a county. But 
the county is divided into twenty sub-divisions, and each of these 
has its own local history, which could not be advantageously in- 
cluded in the general history of the county; yet the history of these 
several localities, or sub-divisions, is a part of the history of the 
county, and this work would be far from complete should it be omit- 
ted, and it is proper, therefore, now to enter upon the history of the 
several townships which constitutes Part Second, of this work. 
These sketches contain an account of the first settlement, or- 
ganization, names of early settlers and interesting events, of each 
township, from its first organization to the close of 1879. 

Attention may here be called to the fact, that a valuable part of 
this history consists in the lists of names here given, of all the in- 
habitants of the several towns, as they appear on the rolls of the 
national census, taken in June, 1860. And these are they, who are 
entitled to the honorable designation of "old settlers," and whose 
names should go down to posterity as those who laid the foundations 
of our county, and changed the wilderness into the happy abode of 
free and enlightened people. And this record shall be their patent 
of nobility, to which their descendants, for generations, may refer 
with pride. And it is just as honorable a beginning, to boast of, as 
that of those who began their family history with Hugh Capet, in 
France, or with the coming in with William the Conqueror, in Eng- 
land, or at the landing of the Pilgrims, from the Mayflower, on the 
desolate shores of New England. Often the brave, self-sacrificing 



494 HlSTOllY OF 

men and women who spent their lives amid the hardships of pioneer 
life, receive not the credit that is due their, industry, foresight and 
achievements, and are forgotten, while some subsequent, ambitious 
and unscrupulous individuals, seeking to magnify their own impor- 
tance, rob the early settlers of their just honors. While great care 
has been taken to have every name, date, and statement correct, yet 
some errors may exist, but if any, the mistakes are few and of but 
little importance. Much of the information contained in these pages 
was obtained from the old settlers themselves, and from the records 
of the several towns. 

A brief biographical notice is given of the first settler of each 
town, and of the person after whom the town was named, where such 
was the fact, and of a few others who bore some special relation to 
the town, or to some imjiortant event or office, but no extended 
notice could be given to other early settlers, just as worthy, in many 
respects, as it would render the work too voluminous. But the 
great majority of the early settlers, and many of later date, will 
find their names, at least, mentioned somewhere in these pages. 
Prior to the organization of township government, the whole county 
was divided into election precincts, each of which comprised a num- 
ber of towns. Judges of election, justices of the peace and consta- 
bles were elected or appointed in the several precincts. By the act 
approved August 13th, 1858, known as the township oi-gauization act, 
it was, among other provisions, enacted "That the governor is 
hereby authorized and required to appoint three persons to act as 
commissioners in each of the oi-ganized counties of this State, who 
shall be residents thereof, to divide such counties into towns, under 
the provisions of this act." 

The governor, accordingly, appointed Andrew C. Dunn, James 
S. l^atimer and R. P. Jenness such commissioners, who, for con- 
venience in this history, have been designated special commission- 
ers. They met at Winnebago City on the twenty-seventh day of 
September, 1858, and proceeded to the performance of their duties. 
The result of their action is embodied in the following report made 
to the register of deeds, October 1st, 1858. 

" j('o the Register of Deeds of the County of Faribault, State of Minnesota: 

Siu: — The undersigned commissioners appointed by his excellency, the rov- 
ernor of the State of Minnesota, to divide the county of Faribault into towns, 
in pursuance of the act of the legislature of the State of Minnesota, entitled an 
act to provide for township organization, approved August I3th, A. D. J858, do, 
in conformity to the said act, make this their report. The commissioners have 
taken and adopted for the boundaries of the towns, the government surveyors' 
stakes, and have divided the county as follows, and with the following names: 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 495 

TOWNSHIP. KANGE. NAME. 

One hundred and one Twenty-four Lake 

One hundred and one Twenty-flve Seely 

One hundred and one Twenty-six Caoapbell 

One hundred and one Twenty-seven Dobson 

One hundred and one Twenty-eight Pilot Grove 

One hundred and two Twenty-four Foster 

One hundred and two Twenty-five Brush Creek 

One hundred and two Twenty-six Emerald 

One hundred and two Twenty-seven Blue Earth City 

One hundred and two Twenty-eight Johnson 

On ! hundred and three Twenty-four Cobb 

One hundred and three Twenty-flve Walnut Lake 

One hundred and three Twenty-six Barber 

One hundred and three Twenty-seven Prescott 

One hundred and three Twenty-eight Verona 

One hundred and four Twenty-four Douglass 

One hundred and four Twenty-flve Marples 

One hundred and four Twenty-six Lura 

One hundred and four Twenty-seven Guthrie 

One hundred and four Twenty-eight Winnebago City 

The commissioners have in conformity to the law aforesaid, attached cer- 
tain towns to others, as follows: The town of "Lake" is attached to the town 
of ".Seely." The town of "Campbell" is attached to the town of "Dobson." The 
town of "Johnson" is attacted to the town of "Pilot Grove." The town of "Em- 
erald" is attached to the town of "Blue Earth City." The town of "Foster" is 
attached to the town of "Brush Creek." The town of "Prescott" is attached 
to the town of "Verona." The towns of "Cobb" and "Douglass" are attached 
to the town of "Marples." The towns of "Lura" and "Barber" are attached to 
the town of "Walnut Lake." All other towns are separate and unattached. 
All of which is respectfully submitted. 

Dated Winnebago City, Sept. 27th, 1858. 

Andrew C. Dunn, 
James S. Latimer, 
R. P. Jenness. 

Commissioners. 
It will be seen from the above report, that the boundaries of the 
the several towns, as named for civil purposes, were the same as 
the boundaries of the land survey, or congressional township, being 
twenty in all. It should also be observed that by attaching one or 
more towns to another, for civil, or township purposes, there were 
created eight town districts, and that there were but two congres- 
sional towns — Guthrie and Winnebago City — each organized separ- 
ately, the result being ten separate township organizations in the 
county: All the congressional townships in the county are now 
(1879), separate town organizations, being twenty in all. Upon the 
filing of the above report, the register of deeds, then J. A. Kiester, in 
pursuance of the act above referred to, caused the election notices 
for the first town elections to be posted up, appointing October 20th, 
1858, for the election of officers in each town or town district. 
Several of the towns failed to hold elections and organize, in con- 



496 HISTOllY <)F 

sequence of which the county commissioners appointed officers for 
such towns. These town officers, whether elected or appointed, 
were to hold their offices until the succeeding annual town meet- 
ings, which were to be held on the first Tuesday of April, annually. 
At the succeeding town meetings, April 1859, being the first regular 
town meetings hold in the county, all the towns, with two or three 
exceptions, were fully organized, which organization has continued 
to this day. By act of February, 1870, the time of holding the an- 
nual town meetings was changed to Ihe second Tuesday of March. 
The township authorities comprise the following officers: Three 
supervisors, one of whom is designated as chairman — a town clerk, 
an assessor, a treasurer, two justices of the peace, two constables, 
a pound master and an overseer of roads, for each road district. 
The justices and constables hold their offices for two years, the 
other officers for one year. For the official duties of these sev- 
eral officers the reader is referred to the town laws. In these 
remarks, and in the following history, the words "town" and "town- 
ship," are used as synonymous, as they are understood to be in 
common usage. By the township organization act of 1858, the 
chairman of the several boards of town supervisors, were members 
of and constituted the board of county supervisors, and superseded 
the board of county commissioners. The county supervisor sys- 
tem existed but a short time in this county. This system ad- 
ded much to the dignity and importance of the duty of chairman 
of the board of town supervisors, and it may be remarked here, 
that the county board was never composed of more able and ef- 
ficient men. than it was during the existence of this system. 

The geographical divisions, known as towns, or townships, 
established for governmental purposes, appears to have originated in 
Germany about the beginning of the tenth century, and have now 
existed for many centuries in most, if not all the governments of 
Europe, but in many different forms. The system was introduced 
into portions of America at an early day of its history. The town- 
ship system of local self government is found in its most complete 
form in the New England States, and there the county is not the 
unit of government and quite unimportant. In almost all the 
southern states, and in several of the northern states, the county is 
the unit and smallest division of local government divisions, and the 
powers of the towns, in this respect, are comparatively of little con- 
sequence, the towns being, as a rule, merely election precincts. In 
most of the middle and northwestern states, a compromise system 
of town and county government exists. Such is the fact in this 
State. Here the town is a body corporate, may sue and be sued, 
may purchase and hold lands within its own limits for town pur- 
poses, may make certain contracts, purchase and hold personal 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 497 

property, and has power to do many other things of a beneficial, 
local character, as the election of its own officers, the laying out of 
roads, building of bridges, the levying of certain local taxes, the 
making of by-laws, in reference to various subjects, all such powers 
being clearly defined by statute. Within certain limits esiablished 
by law, our town governments are small republics, established for 
local self-gpvernment, and independent of all other towns, and of 
the county. It is, perhaps, not too much to say that our system of 
township government, if carefully preserved, will form a safeguard, 
in a large measure, against the consolidation and centralization of 
governmental powers in the state, or nation, and be the security of 
our free institutions, and of popular self-government. The powers 
of towns should be extended to all those matters of local interest 
which can be best understood and regulated by the people them- 
selves who are immediately concerned, and they should be jealous 
of all restrictions, or limitations by the State, and especially of the 
absorption of their local powers of government by any larger body. 
Political power should be kept as closely as possible to its source 
— the people. 

The appropriate following words are quoted from M. DeToc- 
queville's Republic of the United States, page 70: 

"The citizen is attached to his township because it is independent and free; 
his co-operation in its affairs ensures his attachment to its interests; the well- 
being it affordshim secures his affection, and its welfare is the aim of his ambi- 
tion and of his future exertions; he titkes a part in every occurrence in the 
place; he practices the art of self government in the small sphere within his 
reach; he accustoms himself to those forms which can alone ensure the steady 
progress of liberty; he imbibes their spirit, he acquires a taste for order, com- 
prehends the union of the balance of powers, and collects clear, practical notions 
of the nature of his duties and the extent of his rights." 

We may now close these observations with the remark, that the 
importance of choosing the best men the town affords — men of good 
judgment, experience and integrity, to fill the town offices, must be 
obvious to every one. And the most learned and honorable need 
not deem it derogatory to their dignity to hold a town office. James 
Madison, after retiring from two terms of the presidency of the 
United States, accepted the chairmanship of a small agricultural 
society near his home. James Monroe, after a service of, also, eight 
years, as president, retired to private life, and accepted, and held 
for years, the office of justice of the peace; and John Tyler, after 
the expiration of his presidental term, served his township, for a 
time, as overseer of roads. Certainly, after such high examples, no 
man need be ashamed to hold these small, local offices. 

In speaking of the first settler, or settlers, of the several towns, 
there are certain distinctions to be kept in mind. Actual, or perma- 
nent settlers, were those who came here with the purpose of remain 



498 BfSronv OF 

ing, and who filed upon lands, and lomained as permanent residents 
of the county, for some years, at least. There was another class of 
settlers — mere transients — who simply came to get lands, and who 
filed upon their "claims." and remained the length of time required 
by law — ten. thirty or ninety days, as was the fact for several of the 
first years, and then left to "prove up." Some such returned, in 
subsequent years, but many never returned. The mere pre-emption 
of lands did not make an actual settler. In range twenty- four, the 
lands were "in market" from the first, that is, could be purchased 
of the government, at once, without settlement or improvement. 



CHAPTER I. 



DUNBAR TOWNSHIP. 

LOCATION AND PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION. 

Dunbar is "land survey" township, one hundred and four, (104) 
north, of range twenty-four (24) west, and lies in the northeast cor- 
ner of the county. As to the surroundings of the town, it is bounded 
on the north by Waseca county, on the east by Freeborn county, on 
the south by Clark township, and on the west by Minnesota Lake 
township. This is a prairie town. The general contour of the sur- 
face is somewhat undulating, the descent being mainly from five to 
fifteen feet from the higher portions, by long slopes, to the sloughs. 
The town is drained, principally, by the Big Cobb river, a small 
stream, two branches of which, having their confluence on section 
eleven, pass through the eastern and northeastern portions of the 
town. There are no other streams in the town, except several 
slough runs. The average estimated height of the town, above the 
level of the sea, is 1,120 feet, though there is a higher point near the 
southeast corner of the town. which is about 1,150 feet. The general 
slope of the sui-face descends, mainly, though almost imperceptibly 
northward. The bed rock, beneath the drift, lies at a depth of, per- 
haps, 120 to 150 feet, and consists mainly of gray sandstone and 
whitish limestone. The soil of this town is the same as that of the 
county generally, and is very fertile and well adapted to grain rais- 
ing and grazing. Good water is easily obtained by digging a rea- 
sonable depth, and this town lies in a .section of our county in which 
artesian fountains, or flowing wells, are obtained at little cost. 
There are several such fountains in the town. There was a remark- 
able flowing well obtained on the farm of Mr. L. C. Taylor, in 1874. 
In February of that year. Mr. Taylor employed some men to bore a 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, SflNNESOTA. 499 

■well for him. with an eighteen inch auger. They xjassed through 
compact yellow and blue clay without interruption, to a depth of 
ninety-six feet, when suddenly, the auger with the rods attached, 
weighing 1,500 pounds, were raised up with tremendous force, some 
eight feet, when the rods came in contact with the derrick, and the 
water began to flow, and on taking out the auger, flowed a stream of 
great volume and velocity for about four hours, flooding everything. 
The stream then decreased to a diameter of about two inches, and 
has so continued to flow, but a remarkable circumstance is, that at 
intervals of a few weeks, the same original rush of water occurs for 
a short time. The wide spreading landscape here, is very beauti- 
ful. Numerous groves, cultivated fields and many well-built farm 
houses and barns, are seen on every hand. The most distant part 
of the town is not more than seven miles, on a direct line, from a 
railroad market at Wells, and a portion of the town is quite near a 
railroad market, at Minnesota Lake, and Wells and Minnesota Lake 
are the commercial or trading points, of this town. The line of the 
Central Railroad passes through the southwest corner of the town. 

THE NAME. 

This town was named Douglass, by the special commissioners in 
1858, in honor of the Hon. Stephen A. Douglass, who was at the 
time among the most active and noted statesmen of the period 
It was attached to Marples, now Minnesota Lake township, for civil 
purposes. But it subsequently appeared that there was another 
township in the State, which had secured the name of Douglass, and 
hence the State Auditor, then Hon. William F. Dunbar, directed the 
name to be changed, with those of several other towns, and the 
board of county supervisors, on January 4th, 1859, named this town 
Dunbar, in honor of the State Auditor. 

William P. Dunbar was born in Westerly, R. I., November 10th, 
1820. He i-eceived a common school education. From this place 
his family removed to Connecticut, and from thence to Massachu- 
setts. At the age of twenty-two years, Mr. Dunbar went into the 
mercantile business at South Hadley Falls, Mass., where he con- 
tinued some years. In 1843 he was married to Miss L. P. Rice, and 
they have had eleven children. In 1854 he came west and settled in 
Houston county, in this State. He was a member of the territorial 
legislature at the session of 1855-6, and in 1857 he was elected the 
first State Auditor of the State of Minnesota, and became a resident 
of St. Paul for some three years. His term of oflflce expiring, he 
returned to Houston county in 1861. 

The name of Dunbar is one of some distinction. A William 
Dunbar, who lived in the latter part of the 15th century, was a very 
eminent Scottish poet. There is also a seaport town of Scotland 



600 HISTORY OF 

named Dunbar, and there are six post ofifices in the United States of 
tliis name. 

FIUST SETTLEMENT. 

A. L. Taj'Ior and liis father. Lucerne C, and family were, so 
far as the writer has been able to learn, among the very first settlers 
of Dunbar — perhaps the first permanent settlers. 

A. L. Taylor preceded his father and family in his settlement 
here. The former located in Dunbar in 1856. He entered some 
eight hundred acres of land, and broke up one hundred and sixty 
acres, and raised a crop of sod corn. A. L. Taylor was born in New 
York state, February 2d, 1840, and came to Minnesota as above 
stated. He enlisted during the war of the Rebellion in the fourth 
Minnesota Infantry, and served four years. He was in thirty-seven 
battles. In 1868 he was married to Miss Ida M. Thomas. In 1870 
he removed to the then new village of Wells, in this county, and en- 
gaged in business. In 1882 he went to North Dakota, where he 
opened a farm and spent one season, when he returned to Wells, 
where he has since lived. He was a county commissioner of this 
county for some years. Mr. Taylor is a republican in politics, and 
he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church. 

Lucerne C. Taylor, father of A. L. Taylor, came with the re- 
mainder of the family to Dunbar township in 1857. His family then 
including A. L., was made up of his wife, eight sons and two daugh- 
ters. He settled on the northeast quarter of section twelve. Mr. 
Taylor was born in Saratoga county, N. Y., in 1812. Coming west, 
he resided for a time in Wisconsin, and from thence came to Minne- 
sota. He has always been a farmer by occupation. His sons located 
around him in this town. Such was the manner of family settle- 
ments in the patriarchal age. 

ORGANIC. 

This town remained attached to Minnesota Lake township (orig- 
inally Marples township) until, on the petition of Spencer J. Arm- 
strong and twenty-four other citizens of the town, it was detached 
by the board of county commissioners at their session held March 
19th, 1866. The commissioners directed that the first meeting for 
the election of town officers be held at the house of L. C. Taylor, on 
the third day of April, 1866, and notices were posted accordingly. 
Since that time the town has been a separate and independent or- 
ganization. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

The first school house was erected in this town in, or about, the 
year 1864. There are now (1879) three good school houses in the 
town, and the people manifest a commendable interest in the subject 
of education. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 501 

STATISTICS. 

Population — At the census of 1865 and the prior one of 1860, the 
inhabitants of the town were enumerated with the people of Minne- 
sota Lake township. The population of the town, by the census of 
1870, was 203, and by that of 1875, 247, and in 1880, the number was 
368. The population of this town is almost wholly of German 
nationality. 

The agricultural productions in 1879 as nearly as can be estima- 
ted from the reports, were of wheat, 44,000 bushels; oats. 36,100 
bushels; corn, 20,900 bushels; barley, 2,855 bushels; potatoes, 3,858 
bushels; syrup, 618 gallons; flax seed, 450 bushels; butter, 19,675 
pounds; wool, 1,770 pounds; apple trees growing, 1,200; bearing, 
356; apples grown, 121 bushels. The number of acres of cultivated 
land, was 4,900. Stock, etc., in 1879: Horses, 211; cows, 226; other 
cattle, 291; sheep, 327; hogs, 168; wagons and carriages, 63; sewing 
machines, 17; organs, 1. 

VALUES IN 1879. 

Assessed value of all personal property $17,325.00 

Assessed value of all real estate 157,324.00 

Total $174,649.00 

Total amount of taxes assessed for the year $2,189.06 

In the closing year of this historical sketch, the affairs of the 
town were in the care of the following town officers; supervisors, 
Wm. Schroeder, Wm. Tellet and August Ganskow; clerk, James 
Nixon; tx'easurer, E. S. Behm; assessor, S. J. Taylor; justice, James 
Nixon; constable, S. H. Davis. Among the inhabitants residing in 
this town. prior to the close of 1879, the following names are found: S. 
J. Armstrong, David Anthony, E. S. andWm. Behm, H.P. and Charles 
and Harman Bebler, Alfred and Truman Bowen, C. and W. Brigger, H. 
and W. Barnick, C. T., Fred and Chas. Dumke, S. H. Davis, Andrew 
Eaton, Aug. Ganskow, H. Hille, W. Hohensee, M. Johnson, H. and 
W. Krigger, A. Kuffman, C. Kreplin, M. Kula, S. Lowry, C. Mil 
cher, P. and J. A. and W. Miller, A. Newson, James and J. A. Nixon 
E. O'Bryan, P. O'Bryan, J. Rhoda, L. Rahn. P. B. Robbins, L. Reih 
nore, P. Rollenhagen, John and J. C. Rasmussen, W. and P. Schroe 
der, P. and P.Schiinke, G. Stalmacher, V. and J. Schultz, J. Schnoor, 
W. and J. Tellet, L. C. and E. C and A. A. and W. and S. J. and P 
R. Taylor, A. Wendt, C. Weden, and A. and W. H. Young and S 
Young. Before the close of another quarter century, this township 
will be one of vast productiveness and great wealth. 



502 HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER II. 



MINNESOTA LAKE TOWNSHIP. 

LOCATION. 

The township of Minnesota Lake is Congressional township one 
hundred and four (104), north, of range twenty-five (25), west, of 
the 5th principal meridian. This town lies in the most northern tier 
of townships in the county, and is bounded on the north by Blue 
Earth county, east by Dunbar township, south by Walnut Lake 
township, and west by the township of Lura. 

There are three names here, which should not be confused with 
each other— Minne.sota Lake, which designates the body of water; 
Minnesota Lake, the village, and Minnesota Lake, the township. 
We write here first of the township. This is one of the best farm- 
ing towns in the county. The lands are well divided between till- 
able and pasturage. A large portion of the town is prairie. 

GEOLOGICAL. 

The general surface of this township is slightly undulating, or 
"rolling." The estimated average height of the town, above the level 
of the sea, is 1,050 feet. The drift here is from 90 to 120 feet, in 
depth, when the bed rock, consisting of limestone and sandstone, 
is reached. Mr. C. Barber's well, which is 140 feet deep, disclosed 
the following strata: Yellow till, 10 feet; soft blue till, 80 feet, to 
top of rock; thin whitish limestone. 3 feet; thin layered limestone, 
2 feet; soft green shale, 2 feet, and gray sandstone, 43 feet. This 
town lies in the region of artesian, or flowing, wells, several of which 
are found in the town. There is a peat deposit in the town, on sec- 
tion thirty, of about eighty acres in extent, and of about four feet in 
depth. The soil, black and fertile, the result of the decayed vege- 
tation of centuries, and the ashes of a thousand prairie fires, is from 
two to four feet deep. 

Minnesota lake, the body of water of that name, the largest 
sheet of water in the countj', lies in the northwest portion of the town. 
It is one, to one and three-fourths mile wide, from north to south, and 
about two and a half miles long, from east to west. It is a beauti- 
ful lake of crystal waters, having a gravelly beach, and is bor- 
dered by timber. This lake, with its agreeable surroundings, is as 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 503 

attractive a summer resort, for rest and recreation, as many a more 
famous place, and the day will come when the necessary capital and 
enterprise will make it a noted resort. There are several other 
small lakes in the town. One on sections twenty-seven and thirty- 
four which is the head of one of the branches of the Maple river, 
and another on the south line of the town. The town is drained 
mainly by the Maple river, which runs in a general course from east 
to west through the central portion of the town. There are no other 
important streams. There was, formerly, considerable native tim- 
ber on the Maple river and about the lake, some of which remains 
and which, with the numerous artificial groves of forest trees, give 
the country a pleasant wooded appearance. 

NAMES. 

This town was named Marples by the special commissioners in 
1858. in honor of Charles'Marples, an early settler of the town. 

Mr. MarjDles was an Englishman, and in his younger days served 
some seven years in the British regular army. He soon became a 
prominent citizen of the town. He had secured a fair education and 
considerable general information, and possessed a sound judgment 
upon public and business affairs, and was probably the best penman, 
not a professional, who ever resided in this county, yet strange to 
say, he had never attended any school whatever, a single day in his 
life. He was at one time chairman of the board of town supervisors. 
Some years since he removed to the state of Missouri. 

The name of the town was changed to Minnesota Lake, by act 
of the legislature, approved February 23d, 1866. 

The towns of Dunbar (then Douglass) and Clark (then Cobb), 
were attached to this town by the special commissioners in 1858 for 
township purposes. 

Clark (then Cobb), was detached by the county supervisors on 
the fifth day of March, 1860, and on the same day Lura township, 
adjoining Minnesota Lake on the west, was attached to the latter 
town for town purposes, the town district, then comprising Minne- 
sota Lake (then Marples), Dunbar and Lura, and so remained until 
January 5th, 1864, when Lura was detached and commenced its 
career as a separate town. Dunbar was detached in March, 1866. 

FIRST SETTLEMENT. 

Chauncey Barber and family and Nicholas J. Kremer and his 
brothers John and John P., were the very earliest settlers of this 
town, though several claims had then, perhaps, been taken by other 
persons, but if so, had been abandoned. The Kremers and Mr. 
Barber settled here in 1856. Mr. Barber remaining permanently, 
while the Kremers, soon after, went into Danville township, in Blue 
Earth county. 



604 nrsTonv of 

Mr. Barber kept the first hotel in the town, and which was, for 
many years, the headquarters of that section of the county, and was 
known far and wide as one of the principal stopping places on the 
road, for immigrants, travelers and land hunters, and in the » ays 
when Waseca was the railroad market of this county, this hotel was 
thronged by those going to and returning from the railroad. The 
township of Barber, in this county, was named in honor of Mr. Bar- 
ber, and he was the original pi-oprietor of the village of Minnesota 
Lake. 

Mr. Barber came, originally, from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, 
and from thence to Minnesota Lake, at the time above stated. He 
possessed a great fondness for hunting and fishing, and was allured 
to this country, largely because of the opportunity it then presented 
for engaging in hunting. He was a man of varied mechanical skill, 
and not only kept a hotel, as above stated, and which was his prin- 
cipal business for many years, but at times he engaged in carpen- 
tering, blacksmithing and merchandising. He had two sons, Ben- 
ning W. and Ira. The former was at one time sheriff of this county. 
Mr. Barber himself, it appears, never held any public office. 

Mrs. Barber was an invalid for some eleven years, and during 
the last six of which she was confined to her bed, helpless and al- 
most demented, and during all these latter years, Mr. Barber attended 
her bedside, never leaving her, day or night, until her death, except 
when the most urgent business required. There are but few like in- 
stances, of constant and affectionate devotion. In 1878 Mr. Barber 
went to Utah to reside for a time, but did not sell his property here. 
He subsequently returned for a brief period, and disposed of his 
property. He then removed to Oregon, where he has since resided. 

N. J. Kremer afterwards returned to, and became a permanent 
resident of this town, and has from early years, been one of its most 
active, prominent and wealthy citizens. Peter Kremer, another of 
the brothers, located at the lake in 1874. where he has since taken 
an active part in the business and public affairs of the locality. The 
Kremers were born in Lorraine, France, and came with their father 
to America in 1850, and located at Alden, Erie county. N. Y. 
Several years later they emigrated to Wisconsin and from thence to 
Minnesota. 

And we now have the pleasure of presenting here a "roll of 
honor," comprising the names of all the residents of the town accord- 
ing to the national census taken in June, 1860: 

/iarber— Chauncey, Mrs. Altiiira, Hi^nnin^; W., Ira. B«r6fr— Alvin J., Mrs. 
Martha, Giltiian, Mary, Obediali, Jaiiies, Chaiincey, Samuel, Eli/.abeth.Caroline. 
jB»Ymvi— Honry. Ocorcr -LaFayelte, Mrs. Olive, Wilhirfl. GVon/*— Herbert. 
JI<trrisnti—A. R., Mrs. Helen. Murples— Ch&rles,, Mrs. .lane, Charles, Dicey. 
J/er;-i'cA-— Samuel W., Mrs. Fidelia, Tellif, Isabel. Falmenton— John, Mrs. Jane, 
Melissa. iitcieart—Ja.xncs. Tl'aWi— Henry. Whole number of inhabitants, 34. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 505 

OLD TIME MILLS. 

There was at one time, a saw mill in this town, near the lake, 
which did a good business for some years, and in the census reports 
of 1860 we find the firm of John Harrison & Co., returned, as manu- 
facturers of lumber. The mill was operated by a fifteen horse- 
power steam engine. The product of lumber for one year, ending 
June 1st, 1860, was as reported, of black walnut, 20,000 feet, of 
basswood, 30,000 feet; of oak 40,000 feet, of ash, 5,000 feet, of butter- 
nut, 10,000 feet. 

THE OLD WIND MILL. 

The following account of this curious mill was taken from a 
newspaper. 

"Near the village of Minnesota Lake, situated on the north shore of the lake, 
stands an old-time wind mill which resembles in all its phases the Dutch mills 
of Holland. It is owned by Gotleib Shnstag, an old German, and built by him 
some thirty years ago, and used as a grist mill. For the past fifteen or twenty 
years Shastag has allowed no one to enter the building, not even his wife or 
son. 

His reason for this is a strange one. It appears that, as the story is told 
by an old resident, some evil-disposed person "put the devil in the mill" and 
for five years it (the devil) caused him a great deal of annoyance, trouble and 
anguish of mind. After repeated efforts he finally succeeded in getting the 
devil out, and he knows this lo be a fact for he distinctly saw him going out in 
the form of a rabbit. As long as he allows no person to enter, it will be im- 
possible for his Satanic majesty to return and renew his direful work. He is 
perfectly honest in his dealings, and a cut in the price of grist grinding by a 
competitor worries him not, for, as he says, 'God make de wind blow, and 
when de wind blow I grinds,' and he has an advantage over the competitor as 
It costs him nothing for fuel. 

The building being octagon, its dimensions are larger than one would 
think at a casual glance. It has a diameter of forty feet, tapering to about 
twenty-five at a height of forty. The main arms, of which there are four, each 
thirty-five feet in .length, are of hewn oak, ten inches at the largest end 
and tapering to six, and are firmly fastened to an axle on top of the mill, 
and to this main axle or shaft, the machinery is attached. It is necessary, 
as is the case with modern windmills, to keep the fans facing that point from 
which the wind is coming, and this mill is not so automatic in its construction 
as modern ones are, as the wind changes it has to be turned by hand. This is 
accomplished by a long sweep or pole which is framed into the roof extending 
to within a few feet of the ground, to the end of which a chain can be attached. 
The other end of the chain is attached to a capstan, and when the miller finds 
the mill out of wind he drags the capstan ahead a few feet, where it is caught 
by anchor posts set for that purpose, and with a lever draws the sweep around 
until the proper point is reached. 

The arms, as they revolve to the highest points, reach a height of eighty 
feet, and although at a distance they seem to be moving very slowly, in fact 
they pass a given point at the rate of twenty-five miles an hour with a thirty 
horse power. No one knows how the machinery of the inside is constructed, 
but it is supposed, like that of the exterior, to be an exact counterpart of the 
mills in Holland. When any part needs repairing, Shastag, unaided and alone, 
makes the change. Even to the long arms, which are very heavy, It would be 



506 HISTORY OF 

DothInK less than suicide, under the circumstances, to allow any ooe to assist. 
And so he works alone, in the words of the old song, 'Happy is the miller who 
lives by himself.' 

VILLAGE OF MINNESOTA LAKE. 

The village was laid off on the northeast quarter of section 
four (4), in October, 18CG. The site of the village is on the east 
bank of the lake from which it derives its name, and it is a station 
on the railway running from Mankato to Wells. Mr. Chauncey 
Barber was the original town site proprietor, on whose lands the 
village was situated. In November, 1870, an addition known as 
"Lambies Addition," was laid out. The village was incorporated 
by act of the legislature, approved February 14th, 1870, under and 
pursuant to the general act entitled "an act to provide for the 
organization of villages in the State of Minnesota," approved March 
4th, 1875, and N. J. Kremer, W. Lambie, Chauncey Barber, S. T. 
Barnes, and C W. Appley, were by the act of incorporation desig- 
nated as commissioners to give notice of a meeting for the election 
of village officers. 

The village contains a population of about one hundred and fifty 
to two hundred people. There are four grain warehouses in the vil- 
lage at this writing (1879), an agricultural implement store, several 
dry goods and grocery stores, a furniture warehouse, several black- 
smith shops, a meat market, several wagon and carriage shops, a 
harness shop, a cabinet shop, several saloons and a good hotel. 
The principal public building is the new brick school house, which 
is thirty-five by forty-five feet, and two stories in height, and is well 
finished and well furnished. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

It is said that Mrs. Harrison taught the first school in this town- 
ship. She taught a three months' term in the summer of 1860. 

The first school house in this town was erected in 18G4. It is a 
frame building, and was first located on the lands of Wm. Gilson, 
but was subsequently removed to the village. There are now (1879) 
eight (8) substantial school houses in the town, in which are found 
well conducted district schools. There are more school houses in 
this town than in any other town in the county. 

VARIOUS HISTORICAL ITEMS. 

Up to the close of 1879, this town had furnished two members 
of the board of county commissioners, S W. Myrrick and D. Catliu; 
a county superintendent of schools, R. W. Richards, who held that 
office a number of terms, and a sheriff, B. W. Barber. 

The population of the town in 1860 was 34; in 1865, 290. includ- 
ing the town of Dunbar; in 1870 it was 564, and in 1875, 630, and in 
1880. 784, including the village. 




S. T. BARNES. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 507 

The population is largely Poles and Germans, with a fair pro- 
portion of Americans. 

There was reported for the year 1879, for "the town, 388 horses, 
347 cows, 288 other cattle, 6 mules. 133 sheep, 301 hogs, 95 wagons 
and carriages, 20 sewing machines and 4 organs. 

The assessed value of real property $170,050 

The assessed value of personal property 37,212 

Total $207,262 

The total tax assessed for the year was $5,085. 

The farm products for the same year, as nearly as they can be 
estimated from the returns, were as follows: Wheat, 55,000 bu.; 
oats, 37.000 bu.; corn. 21,500 bu. ; barley, 3,000 bu.; potatoes, 2,700 
bu. ; syrup, 1,080 gals.; flax seed, 490 bu. ; wool. 470 lbs. ; butter, 
26,000 lbs. Apple trees growing, 1,400; bearing. 700. 

There were 7,500 acres of cultivated land reported. 

Among other residents of this township, prior to the close of 
1879, the following well- known names may be mentioned: P. M. 
Andrews. C. Allace. C. W. Appley, L. Brant. W. Ford. J. Brown, 
A. Berger, David Catlin, T. Cote, A. Clark, L. J. Cale, Albert 
Crechee, A. Crechee, E. A. Cooper, H. O. Camfield, A. Crocker, H. 
Drager, Geo. Doremus, A. Deitman. G. H. and David Dazel, W. H. 
Dodge, William and John Dornfielt, S. Even. P. Tallman, John Fel- 
ber, the Gillsons. William, John, Robert, George and R. G. and W. 
G.; G. M. Graves. P. Grunsky, R. N. Gale, W. Hunt. Jas. B. Hill, 
C. Hudson, C. J. Hall; S. A. Halleck, T. Jokel, Peter Kremer, J. 
Klenk, And. Kulah, A. Lepka, J. Latusie. J. Lutz, Wm. Lambie, M. 
V. McKinstry, J. Naubauar, A. P. and A. S. and C. B. Park, P. Popel, 
John and J. Penhiler, C. L. Pease, J. Pease. P. Petrus. D. H. Pratt, 
Dr. R. Parkin, Dr. A. H. Pelsey, A. Plegeman, A. Pietrus, H. 
Quimby. J. Robinson. A. Rahn, A. B. Stiles, Prank Schoilman, O. 
Schumaker, H. R. Smith. M. T. Smith, J. J. Schermerhorn, P. 
Stalock, P. Sonnek, A. Sonnek, Andrew Sonnek, P. Stencel, P. 
Schultz, M. Stalock. John Stephenson. M. Schumaker, Joseph 
Schoffman, Albert, Prank and John Troske, J. D. Townsend, Wil- 
liam and August Urban, Pred Voight. John Walner, W. Wheatly, 
Ed. Willson, H. A. Wolcott, L. B. Wolcott. 

HON. SMITH T. BARNES. 

A prominent citizen of this town for many years was Smith T. 
Barnes. Mr. Barnes was born on a farm in St Lawrence county, 
N. Y., January 11th, 1841.. His early youth was spent on the farm. 
His father engaged in farming and merchandising until his death. 
Smith received his education in the district schools of the locality and 
at a select school. When eighteen years old he engaged in clerking 



508 U [STORY OF 

in a store at Racket River, N. Y. Subsequently he was appointed 
postmaster at this place by President Lincoln. His brother, George, 
came to Minnesota Lake in 1804, and giving favorable accounts of 
the country, Smith came west also and located at the Lake, May 8th, 
1866. His mother, then a widow, and his brother, Frank, came to 
the Lake in 1868. Mr. Barnes, on locating hero, went to work at 
once to erect a building, and in August purchased a stock of gro- 
ceries and opened a store. He soon after added dry goods. In De- 
cember of that year he was appointed postmaster at the Lake, a 
position which he held for eighteen years. Mr. Barnes, though al- 
ways a staunch democrat in politics, was appointed postmaster in 
New York, and also in Minnesota, under republican admistrations. 

Benning W. Barber was in partnership with Mr. Barnes in the 
mercantile business which continued until 1871, when Mr. Barnes 
sold out. Several years later he opened a drug store. After the 
building of the railroad through the town, he also engaged, for 
some years, in the purchase of grain. Mr. Barnes was married in 
August. 1871, to Miss Agnes Lambie. of Minnesota Lake. They 
have had three childi-en, one of whom is now dead. Mr. Barnes' 
fitness for office was soon apjiarent to his neighbors, and he was 
chosen town clerk at an early day, an office which he held for fifteen 
years. He was also justice of the peace for ten years. During 
those years there was no lawyer residing at the Lake, and Mr. 
Barnes did much of the conveyancing, writing of contracts and of 
wills for the people. He was also for many years connected with 
the school boards of the town. 

In November, 1884, Mr. Bai'nes was elected clerk of the district 
court of the county, and removed to Blue Earth City. The term of 
office was four years. After the expiration of the term, he acted as 
deputy clerk for his successor, and at the general election of 1890, 
he was elected judge of the probate court, which office he filled until 
the expiration of the term. Mr. Barnes died August 8th, 1895. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 509 



CHAPTER III. 



LURA TOWNSHIP— EASTON. 

LOCATION. 

Lura is township number one hundred and four (104) north, of 
range twenty six ( 26) west. It is bounded on the north by Blue 
Earth county, on the east by Minnesota Lake township, on the 
south by the town of Barber, and on the west by Delavan township. 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 

This is a prairie township, and the lands are as productive as 
any in the county, and adapted to grazing and the raising of all 
kinds of crops, usually produced in the Northwest. The fertility of 
this soil can never be exhausted. The general surface of the town 
is slightly undulating. 

The Maple river, which drains the town, passes through the 
northeast corner of the town, which stream has, also, a western 
branch, which runs through the central portion of the town, in a 
northwestern direction. There are several other small rivulets and 
slough runs, which are unimportant. There is, also, a small lake 
about a mile east of the center of the town, which is supposed to be 
the source of the west branch of the river. Some timber is found on 
the Maple river, but not a great quantity. The farmers of this town, 
however, have not been behind the people of other towns in setting 
out fine groves of forest trees, some of which have already attained 
a large growth. 

SEVERAL GEOLOGICAL HINTS. 

The estimated average height of the town, above the level of the 
sea, is 1040 feet. The northern end of a belt of slight morainic hills, 
extending from the southeast portion of the county, reaches several 
miles into the southwest part of the town. In this town, the drift 
deposit, upon the bed rock, is about one hundred feet in depth. The 
oed rock is composed of limestone, and light gray sandstone. There 
are a number of fine artesian, or flowing, wells in the town, mainly 
along the Maple river. 

"Mr. Haight reports that in boring a well in ttiis town, two miles north of 
Easton, he met, at sixty feet below the surface, a layer of mixed sand and grass- 
leaves, appearing lilce drift grass, on a sandy beach. This was between beds of 
till, and marks an interglacial epoch." 



510 HISTORY OF 

Peat has also been found in the town, in considerable quantities, 
some of which has been tested and proved to be very good fuel. 

NAME. 

The town was named Lura, by the special commissioners in 
1858, after Lake Lura, a small body of water, which lies about a mile 
west of the northwest corner of the town and which is situated partly 
in Delavan township and partly in Blue Earth county. The commis- 
sioners had no very accurate maps of the count}', at that early day, 
and supposed that the lake was situated in this town. The name of 
Lura, is short and neat, but is not a very common name. It may 
be mentioned, however, that there is a post-office of this name in the 
state of Kansas. 

ORGANIZATION. 

Lura was attached, for town purposes, to Walnut Lake town- 
ship, by the special commissioners in 1858. and was detached there- 
from, by the county supervisors on the fifth day of March, 1860, and 
attached to Marples, (now Minnesota Lake township). The town 
was detached from Marples on the fifth day of January, 1804, to be 
organized as a separate town, and an election for town officers was 
directed to be held on the twenty-sixth day of January, following, 
at the house of O. C. Healy. But it appears that the town did not 
get organized at this time, for on September 7th, 1864, it was with- 
out officers, and the board of county commissioners, on that day. ap- 
pointed Chester Johnson (chairman) and N. Haight and G. W. Ware, 
as a board of supervisors, and John Howard, town clerk. 

FIRST SETTLEMENT. 

The first two settlers of this town were Osias C. Healy and John 
McCormick. They located in the town on the fifteenth day of Maj-, 
1856. Mr. Healy claimed the northeast quarter of section three and 
Mr. McCormick took the northwest quarter of the same section. 
They came from Connecticut, and were members of the "Minnesota 
Settlement Association," a more full account of which will be found 
in the history of Delavan township. 

The following list comprises the names of all the residents, old 
and young, of the town in June, 1860, as appears by the national 
census taken in that year: 

Chase— John, Mrs. Abigail, Martha, Orson, Florence, Juliette, Elva, Luella. 
Healy— O. C, Mrs.Isaljel, Mary, Ada, Oscar. 
Kimpton— George, Mrs. Elizaltelh, William, George. 
McCoriuack— Johu, Mrs. Elizabeth, Alexander. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 511 

EDUCATIONAL. 

The first school house in this town was built of logs, on the north- 
east quarter of section three, in the year 1864, and the first teacher 
of the public schools.was Mr. C. G. Spaulding. There was, however, 
a school kept in the town several years before the building of this 
house. In a letter to the writer, Mr. John Chase says that the first 
school taught in the town was kept in his house, and at his own 
expense. There are now (1879) seven good school houses in the 
town. 

POST-OFFICES. 

There has for many years been a post-office near the north 
boundary of the town, named Grapeland. At one time there was, 
also, a post-office at the house of J. P. Emerson, on the north side of 
the town, known as "Fountain Brook," but this office has been dis- 
continued. There is also a post-office at Easton. 

INCIDENTS. 

A n unknown man was found dead, at an early day, on the prairie in 
this town, by John Howard, B. A. Stowe and others, and this was 
probably the first death in the town, and at his burial occurred the 
first public religious services in the town. The Methodists organ- 
ized a class and a Sunday school here in the spring of 1865, which 
were the first in the. town. There was also a Baptist organization 
at an early day. Up to the close of 1879 this town had furnished 
to the public service a county commissioner. Joseph Claggett, who 
held the office six years, and a representative in the state legisla- 
ture, T. S. Wrooley. 

EASTON. 

The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway (formerly the 
Southern Minnesota) passes through the town of Lura, in the soutli- 
ern tier of sections. On the line of this road, on the northeast quar- 
ter of the southwest quarter of section thirty-six, is situated the 
village of Easton, the capital of the town of Lura. The village site 
was surveyed and staked out in September, 1873, but the plat was 
not filed for record in the ofiice of the register of deeds of the 
county until March 14, 1874. The original proprietors of the vil- 
lage were J. C. Easton and Conrad Ruf. At the close of 1873 there 
were already twelve buildings on the town site. The village was 
named in honor of Mr. Easton, but it was for some time known as 
"Lura Station." The name Easton is not an unfamiliar one. There 
is a fine city of that name in Pennsylvania, which contains a popu- 
lation of about fifteen thousand people. It is to be hoped that at 
some day, probably in the very distant future, our village of that 
name may rival that of Pennsylvania, in numbers, wealth and enter- 



512 HISTORY OF 

prise. It may not be inappropriate to mention here the fact, that 
there are, in the United States, sixteen post-offices of the name of 
Easton. 

Jason C. Easton, after whom the village was named, was for 
many years the most extensive banker and land owner in this State, 
and one of its wealthiest citizens. He was born in Lewis county, state 
of New York, on the twelfth day of May, 1823. He was prepared 
for college at Lowville Academy, N. Y., and entered Yale in 1847, but 
owing to failing health, he left during the first year. He subsequently 
became the editor and publisher of a newspaper, at Lowville, N. Y., 
for some four years In 1851 he was married to Miss Sarah J. John- 
son, of Lewis county, N. Y. They have had one child. Mr. Easton 
came to Minnesota in 1856, and located at Chatfield, Filmore county, 
where he has since resided. He engaged, very extensively, for some 
time, in the grain commission business, and was for some years a 
director in the Southern Minne.sota Railroad Company. His princi- 
pal business, however, has been banking and dealing in real estate. 
He has many farms, and has engaged largely in stock raising, and 
has some of the best sheep, hogs and cattle in the State. Mr. 
Easton is, undoubtedly, one of the ablest, most reliable and most 
successful financiers of the Northwest. The village was incorpor- 
ated by act of the legislature, approved March 9th, 1874. 

STATISTICS. 

The population of the town was 20 in 1860, 362 in 1865, 621 in 
1870, 724 in 1875 and 648 in 1880, including the village. Of the resi- 
dents of this township, about one-third ai-e Norwegians, and the re- 
mainder are of various nationalties, but principally American. 

In 1879, the last year of this history, there were in the town, of 
horses, 394; cows. 370; other cattle, 323; mules, 11; sheep. 932; hogs, 
386; wagons and carriages, 129; sewing machines, 34; organs, 3. 

The assessed value of real estate was $173,882 

The assessed value of personal property was 42,473 

Total $216,355 

The total tax assessed on the same was $3,022.31. 
The agricultural products of the town, for the same year, as 
nearly as they can be estimated from the returns, were as follows: 
Wheat, 40,000 bushels; oats, 44,800 bushels; corn, 32,500 bushels; 
barley, 840 bushels; potatoes, 2,750 bushels; sorgham syrup, 990 
gallons; flax seed, 3,340 bushels; tame bay, 112 tons; wool, 5,617 lbs; 
butter, 26.000 lbs.; cheese, 300 lbs.; honey. 200 lbs. There were 
reported, also, 3,000 apple trees growing, 690 of which were bearing, 
and 450 bushels of apples were produced. The total number of 
acres of cultivated land was 6,600. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 513 

While not attempting to give the names of all the early settlers 
of this town, the following list embraces the names of many of those 
who were residents of the town prior to the close of 1879, and are 
in addition to those already mentioned in this brief sketch: A. J. 
Armstrong. Jacob Bachtle, E. S. Bailey, D. G. Bailey, E. D. Bailey, 
G. L. Bears, R. M. Broe, A. Corey, S. Corey, C. Chaffee, G. M. 
Claggett, O. E. Colby, J. W. Chestnut, G. W. Corey. H. H. Catlin, 
M. A. Davis, John Evans, H. P. Edwards, Henry Pilble, William 
Gale, John Gollnick, W. H. Gilpin, John Hodge, J. Holverson, 
Thorston Holverson, G. W. Herring, J. M. Herring, M. J. Herring, 
Wm. Herring, H. Haynes. A. Haynes, Jos. Haynes, M. D. L. Haight, 
E. D. Healy, O. W. Healy, S. E. lams, GrifBth Jones, S. E. James, 
E. J. Jewett, D. S. Kelley, Wm. Kauder, C. Latourell. Ed. Lang, 
G. C. Lang, J. Loomer, C. Lass, D. McGregor, R. J. Odell, J. Os- 
born, T. J. Probert, S. S. Probert, L. Pitcher, S. Pollard, B. Rand, 
John Rand, Carl Rath, H. L. Ridgway, J. R. Ridgway, J. S. Rich- 
ards, A. Ramspot, W. Stevermere, S. W. Shoen, J. Scheid. C. Stock- 
ley, B. A. Stowe, O. B. Tenny, E. Traver, B. Traynor, A. E. Traver, 
E. Thayer, H. W . Woodard. J. B. Whitney, S. Warner, T. S. 
Wrooley, P. H. Wood. S. Wood. J. Warner, S. H. Waterman, J. E. 
Way, J. Weatherly, H. P. Walsh. J. W. Young. 

Large portions of this town are conveniently near to railroad 
markets, either at Minnesota Lake, Easton or Delavan, and its 
future in many other essential respects also, is forever secure. 



CHAPTER IV. 



DELAVAN TOWNSHIP. 

The township of Delavan is congressional township one hundred 
and four (104) north, of range twenty-seven (27) west. On the north 
of this town lies the town of Mapleton, in Blue Earth county. On 
the east it is bounded by the township of Lura, south by the town of 
Prescott, and on the west by Winnebago City township. 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 

The surface of the town is designated as mainly rolling prairie. 
The soil is deep and as fertile as any in the county, and possesses 
the same characteristics as that of the county generally. 

The estimated average height of the town above the level of 
the sea is 1,050 feet and the drift here is presumed to be about one 
hundred feet in depth, to the bed rock. 



514 UISTUIiY OF 

There are several beautiful lakes in the town, one known as 
Bass Lake, the other named on the government maps, Maple Lake 
which is now generally called Rice Lake, and there is also Lake 
Lura on the northern boundary. There are several small running 
streams and outlets of the lakes. 

There is considerable native timber in this town, and many beau- 
tiful artificial groves, the result of the forethought and industry of 
the people. It is probable that the first grove of trees set out in 
this county was planted by John Chestnut, in this township, in 1860. 
A few trees had been set out prior to this, along the road and in 
front of several dwellings, but this was doubtless the first grove. It 
contained two acres. And this was, probably, the beginning of that 
industry which has since covered our county with innumerable 
groves. 

On the lands of Mr. Blair is a beautiful elevated grove of an- 
cient oaks, overlooking that fine sheet of water, Bass Lake, which 
for years past has been a summer resort and has long been known 
as "Camp Comfort." Here families and small companies of i^eople, 
have been want to resort in the heat of summer for rest and recrea- 
tion. Camping out under the shade of the moss grown oaks and 
passing many pleasant days in boat riding, fishing and hunting, or 
in quiet reverie. Here too, for years past, have been held every 
summer, assemblies of the people from the surrounding country, in 
attendance upon Sunday school picnics, Fourth of July celebrations, 
old settler's reunions and I'eligious meetings and there are few, if 
any, more pleasant resorts to be found, anywhere, and many of the 
good people of the county have spent many agreeable hours here, 
the rememberances of which will remain with them for many years. 
There are other beautiful groves about this lake which are occa- 
sionally used for public assemblies. 

NAMES OF THE TOWN. 

The town was named Guthrie by the special commissioners, and 
there has been some (juestion as to in whose honor the town was 
named. There is a southwest county of Iowa by this name. There 
was a very eminent Scottish clergyman by the name of Thomas 
Guthrie, who died in 1873, and during the last century there was a 
Scottish author of distinction by the name of Wm. Guthrie. We 
have also had a statesman of eminence, in our own country, the Hon. 
James Guthrie, who was United States senator from Kentucky, 
from 1865 to 1868, and formerly Secretary of the Treasury in Pres- 
ident Pierce's administration. But it was not in honor of either of 
these men that the town was first named, but the honor was re- 
served for a resident of the town. Wm. and Sterrit Guthrie were 
among the earliest settlers of this township, and it is quite certain 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 515 

that the name of Sterrit Guthrie, the first of the two to settle in the 
town, was in the minds of the commissioners when the town was 
named. The name of the town was changed to Delavan, by act of 
the legislature, apiJi-oved March 1st, 1872, to agree with the name of 
the village of Delavan, some time previously located in this town. 

FIRST SETTLEMENT. 

In relation to the first settlement of this town, the writer pre- 
sents the following letters : 

Bass Lake, Minn., Aug. 14, 1873. 

Fkiend Kiester: — I am in receipt of yours of July 26th. It being harvest 
time, I have not the leisure I should like to give to the subjects you suggest, 
but will give you a few disjointed statements of the facts, as near as I can. 

John S. Kobertson and myself, on the 11th day of May (1856), took our claims, 
which we, in due time, pre-empted. He (Mr. Robertson) went off to work, and 
was gone about all the time the law would admit. I continued on my claim 
from the first — never left it. He took the southwest quarter of section 
nine and I the southeast quarter of section nine. Next came W. J. Dick- 
erman, George and John Hart, two or three days later. Next came I. D. Irish 
and Joseph Predmore, about the last of May (1856). I. D. Irish lived on section 
sixteen about six years, and left. Predmore settled on the southeast quarter of 
section seventeen. Sterrit Guthrie and Ed. Thorpe came about the same time. 
Sterrit and Thorpe told me that they had been at Bass Lake a few days before 
I took my claim, but went west to the Blue Earth river, and spent some time 
looking around, to find such a place as they wanted, and concluded to come 
back to Bass Lake and take the claim I had selected, as they had examined it 
on their way west, but they found that they were too late when they returned. 
Wm. Guthrie did not come in until the next year (1857). The Guthries came 
from Harrisburg, Penn., but Sterrit had resided, before he moved here, at Vin- 
ton, Iowa. » « * * Yours truly, 

T. Blair. 

MINNESOTA SETTLEMENT ASSOCIATION. 

Bass Lake, Minn., August .30th, 1873, 
Friend Kiester:— Yours of the twentieth is received. The two Harts, 
Dickerman, Robertson and myself, came to Mankato on the same boat. We 
organized in the City of New York during the winter of 1855-6, what was called 
the Minnesota Settlement Association, and gathered members from all parts of 
the eastern slates and emigrated as said association to this .State in the month 
of April, 1856. Most of the colony settled in Blue Earth county. Harts and 
Dickerman were from Hartford, Conn. J. S. Robertson was born in Scotland. 
He worked in New York City at his trade (cabinetmaker) two or three years. I 
was born in Scotland (October 8th, 1825.) I emigrated from Glasgow on the 
twelfth day of June, 1848; landed in Boston, Mass., and went to Camden, Maine, 
where I engaged to work, learning the trade of ship calker, serving two and 
a half years. I then left that place and went to New York City and worked 
about three years. I then picked up my tools and went on a cruise to Pitts- 
burg, Pa., thence down the Ohio river to Louisville, Ky., thence to St. Louis, 
Mo., and from there down the Mississippi to New Orleans, where I worked about 
four months in winter, and from thence I wont by steamship, by way of Cuba, 
to New York City, where I again worked at my trade until I came here in 1856. 

Yours truly, 

Thomas Blaiu. 



516 lIlSroiiY OF 

Mr. Blair was married in 185G. to Miss Agnes Kirk, of New 
York City. Tlioy liave seven children living. Mr. Blair and Mr. 
Robertson are entitled to the honor of being the first settlers of this 
town, yet but a few days passed when several other persons located 
here. In connection with the subject of the first settlement of the 
town, there is here presented a copy of the census roll of the inhab- 
itants, taken in June. 1860, and, also, a few items taken from 
that census, as to some other matters of interest. It is well to re- 
mark here that there were several settlers in the town, who were 
absent from home, when the census was taken, and whose names, 
consequently, do not appear on this roll of honor. 

-4(focfc— Charles, Mrs. Jane, .Sarah. ^^I'ey— John, Mr.s. Sarah. Williaiu, Eliz- 
abeth, Mary, Sarah. Eliza, Saiiiucl. 7>7«ir— Thomas, Mrs. Agnes, John. Brans 
— Cornelius, iifoirfi/— Jacob V. Burk—io\\n. Conklin—'B.. S. Co(«— Perry, Mrs. 
Lucinrla, .Sarah. Z)(H-e)-»uni— Winslow J. Mrs. Laura. Fuller— 'Rnos, Mrs. Clar- 
inda, Lucy, Delos, Sarah. Graj/— Donald, Duff. Hart— John. Hart— George, 
irts/i— Isaac D. Jordan — Hugh, Mrs. Susan, Hugh, Jacob, .Sarah. Lardner — 
Patrick, Mrs. Mary, Thomas, Mary, John. jWcC'oiifw— Alonzo, Mrs. Martha, Al- 
vin. 3/or€/toi(,<f— Waller. Mrs. Harriet, James, Mary, Aaron, Jacob, Chester. 
3/cA'in)iet/— John. McElsandcr—Wtinvy. McElsunder — Napoleon. 6'ii«H— Apple- 
ton, Mrs. Elizabeth, Lydia, Josiah, Jacob. I'SpicArcrnian— Horace, Mrs. Amanda, 
Charles, George. Jlmnpxon—KnMl, Mrs. Augusta. Williams— Vi . II., Jeston, 
John, Benjamin, \Villiaiii, Mary, Dorcas, ir/tccte)-— Wm. H., Mrs. Betsey, Wil- 
liam, Polly, Eveline, Eiuily, Menzo, Sarah. Wheeler— 'A-Achznah, Mrs. Martha, 
Ellen, Albert. TT^son— Jothan. 

Acres of land improved, (ij: va!u« of farms, $1,800; value of farm imple- 
ments and machinery, $215; numljer of horses, 5; number of milch cows, 7; 
number of working oxen, 2; number of other cattle, 5; number of swine, 12; 
value of live stock, $625. 

ORGANIZATION. 

This town was organized for civil purposes, on the twentieth 
day of October, 1858, by the election, on that day, of the first town 
oflScers. Isaac D. Irish was chosen chairman of the board, and John 
Alvey, town clerk. The town meeting was held at the house of Mr. 
Irish, and there were fourteen votes cast. 

At the fii'st annual town meeting held in the spring of 1859, 
Thomas Blair was chosen chairman, and Mr. Alvey, clerk. This or- 
ganization has continued to this day. The list of officers for the 
concluding year of this history, 1879, was composed of the following 
named gentlemen: Supervisors, E. J. Lien, chairman, and L. An- 
drews and W. McNeil; town clerk, John Alvey; treasurer, Wesley 
Hill; assessor, J. W. Jenkins, Sr.; justice of the peace, W. J. Dick- 
erman; constable, E. Griffin. 

.lOHN ALVEY. 

An historical sketch of Delavan township would be incomplete 
should some special reference not be made to Mr. Alvey, one of the 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 517 

early settlers, and for many years one of the prominent citizens of 
the town. He was born in England, March 30th, 1807. He learned 
the trade of making hosiery and gloves, at which occupation he 
worked a number of years. In 1831 he was married. His wife died 
in 1834. In 1836 he married again, and four of his children were 
born in England. He became a member of the Odd Fellows society 
in that country, and after holding several of the principal offices of 
the lodge, he was elected permanent seci-etary. Leaving his family 
in England, for the time being, Mr. Alveycame to America In 1848, 
and located in Connecticut, where he had some relatives, and went 
to work in a factory. The company for which he worked kindl.y 
advanced the money to bring his family to this country, and they 
arrived in November of that year. 

After working in the East some years, a part of the time at 
market gardening, he sold out some real estate, which he had se- 
cured, at a good price, and concluded to come west and procure some 
farm lands. Leaving his family in comfortable circumstances, he 
visited Wisconsin, but could there find no lands to suit him, and 
came to Minnesota. Here he found a claim, on government land, on 
section fifteen, near Bass Lake. This was in the year 1857( '?) He 
then bought eight acres of timber of George Hart. He built a 
house, broke up twelve acres of sod, made some rough articles of 
household furnitux-e, put up some hay, and then, in September, went 
to Hastings, on the Mississippi river, to meet his family, who had 
come on to that place, by previous arrangement, and they were all 
soon comfortably settled in their new home. Here Mr. Alvey opened 
up and improved his lands, from year to year. He always took much 
interest in the public affairs of the town and county. He held the office 
of town clerk for fifteen years. He was clerk of his school district 
for twelve years and postmaster at Bass Lake, until the discontinu- 
ance of the office. He was subsequently appointed postmaster at 
the village of Delavan, where he had removed, which position he 
held for quite a number of years. He was, also, school district 
treasurer for six years, but during many of the years of his service, 
he held a much more important office than those named, that of jus- 
tice of the peace, for his town, which office he held for fourteen 
years. Mr. Alvey took quite an interest in politics, especially local. 
He was a member of many county, and several State conventions. 
When he first came to this country he affiliated with the democratic 
party, but, in 1859, he became a republican, and ever after adhered 
to that party. In 1886 he retired to his farm, and there spent the 
remainder of his days, surrounded by his children, all comfortably 
situated. In the same year he was elected county coroner, an office 
which he held several terms. Mr. Alvey, and his family, were 
members of the Methodist Protestant Church. He died in 1891, 



518 IIISTOUY OF 

aged eighty-four years. Mrs. Alvey died in 1889. For many years 
he was familiarly and kindly known as Uncle John Alvey, and will 
long be remembered by many old time friends. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

The first school in the town was kept in the upper room of 
Uncle John Alvey's house, and the first school teacher in the town 
was Miss Lydia Snell, afterwards Mrs Alfred Raymond. 

The first school house erected in the town was located in the 
southeast corner ot the southwest quarter of section ten (10). and 
was in district number eleven. It was a balloon frame, fourteen feet 
by sixteen feet in size, and one story in height. 

There are now (1879) six good substantial district school houses 
in the town, and the people take a commendable interest in educa- 
tional matters. 

RELIGIOUS. 

Religious meetings were held in this town at a very early day 
— as soon, in fact, as there were two or three to gather together in 
the name of the great master, and several religious societies were 
organized, and stated services held at an early period in the history 
of the town. 

VILLAGES. 

A village site was once, in very early days, laid off and staked 
out, on section one or two, but nothing more ever came of the en- 
terprise than this traditional remembi'ance. 

The village of Delavan, a station on the M. & St. Paul Railroad, 
formerly the S. M. Railroad, was surveyed and located October 10th 
and 11th, 1870, and is situated on .section thirty-six of this town. It 
thus appears that the village of the township, instead of being lo- 
cated on the first, is upon the last section of the town. The original 
proprietors of the village were H. W. HoUey and O. D. Brown. 

The village was named after Oren Delavan Brown, one of the 
proprietors, and the name Delavan was suggested by Mrs. H. W. 
Holley. Mr. Brown was born in Jefferson county, N. Y . in 1837. 
He is the son of Orville Brown. Esq., for some years one of the 
leading editors of the State. Oren came to Minnesota with his 
father in 1856, and they located at Chatfield, in Fillmore county. 
In 1858 they removed to Faribault, Rice county, and from thence to 
Maukato, where the elder Brown became the publisher and editor 
of the Mmikato Record for some years. Mr. 0. D. Brown was con- 
nected with the Southern Minnesota Railroad, as engineer, from 
May, 1865, until February. 1875, and subsequently, he was for some 
years employed as engineer of the St. Paul and Sioux Cit^' R. R. 
Company. He acted as chief engineer in the employment of this 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 519 

company, on the Worthington and Sioux Falls road and on the Blue 
Earth City branch of the St. P. and Sioux City R. R. He resides 
at Luverne, Rock county, Minn. ^ 

There and several post-offices in the United States named Del- 
avan. The first train of passenger cars came into the village of 
Delavan, and consequently Into the township, on the nineteenth day 
of December, 1870. The village was incorporated under the general 
act of incorporation, by special act of the legislature, approved 
February 7th, 1877, and embraced the following territory, "section 
36, in town 104, range 27." M. White, R. B. Johnson and A. Ander- 
son were designated in the act, as commissioners to post notices 
of the first election. The first post-office was established in the town, 
about the year 1859, and John Alvey was appointed postmaster. 
It was named Bass Lake post-office. It continued many years, but 
was finally closed, and the post-office of the town was established 
at the village of Delavan. 

HON. A. H. BULLIS. 

Mr. Bullis, of Delavan township, was born in Cattaragus county. 
New York, February 8th, 1832. He remained in the state until 
1854, when he came to Minnesota and settled in Rice county. Here 
he was engaged for a short time in the government surveys. He 
then engaged in merchandising, in partnership with another young 
man. He soon, though quite successful, quit this business and served 
for five years as county surveyor of his county. He was a mem- 
ber of the State Legislature from Rice county, in the House, at the 
sessions of 1864 and 1865. ' He soon afterwards was appointed an 
officer in the United States land office, at Winnebago City, and came 
to that place to reside. He served in the land office three years. 
He subsequently removed to section 31, in Delavan township, where 
he opened up a large farm. He has made a specialty of raising 
Short Horn and Hereford cattle. He was the first person to intro- 
duQe these breeds of cattle into this county. 

Mr. Bullis was a member of the board of county commissioners 
of this county for six years, serving a part of the time as chair- 
man. He was married October 15th, 1859, to Miss Ellen L. Pierce, of 
New York state. They have had three sons. 

SEVERAL INCIDENTS. 

On the fifteenth day of April, 1858, Wm. A. Miller stood on a 
cake of ice in Bass Lake and speared seventy-two pickerel. He 
speared them as fast as he could throw them out. An item from 
the Post: 



520 ni STORY OF 

A MYSTKHlOrS DISAPPEARANCE CLEAKED UP. 



FINDING OF HUMAN REMAINS. 

"Our readers will recollect an item which we published souietime ago in 
regard to the ilndinir of a human arm near Rice Lake in the town of Guthrie. 
It was supposed at that time that this arm l)i'lf)nged to a man liy the name of 
Abel Yarney, who disappeared from that neighliorhood in Scptemlier, 1870, and 
a close search was made for the remainder of the body, but with no success. 
Since that time other portions of a huujan body have beeu found in different 
places in that vicinity, but the source from whence they come could not be 
ascertained until last Sunday, when Mr. George McKay, who lives in the 
neiglihorhood, found the greater portions of the hones of a human body in a 
slough on the edge of the lake. Coroner Rose was sent for and an inciuest was 
held which resulted in identifying the remains as those of the unfortunate 
Varney. It appeared as evidence that he was of unsound mind, and was last 
seen by Mr. McKay, in September, 1870, going in the direction of the place where 
the remains were found. Mr. McKay spoke to him at the time but received no 
reply, and afterwards went and looked for him without finding him. A small 
amount of money and some papers which could not be read were found with 
the body, and the bones which had Ijeen found previously corresponded with 
those finally discovered. The body was found in a reclining position in the 
slough with the head resting upon the right hand. He had evidently wandered 
into the slough, and beintr weak and emaciated, had sunk down unable to pro- 
ceed farther, and perished there from exposure. The coroner's jury rendered a 
verdict in accorilance with the facts, and the remains were decently interred. 
We believe Varney had no immediate relatives in this region." 

The first and only newspaper published in this town, to this 
date, was the Delavan Bee, the first issue of which appeared June 
8th, 1872, Carr Huntington, editor and proprietor. The press was 
removed from Delavan to Blue Earth City in December, 1874. 

This town has furnished to the public service, two county com 
missioners, Mr. Blair, who served eight years, and was thrice chair- 
man, and Mr. BuUis, who was twice chairman; a county treasurer, 
A. Ander.son, and a representative in the State legislature, M. A. 
Hawkes. 

During the years of the first settlement of this town an incident 
occurred, worth preserving. Mr. McDuffy, an Irishman, had been to 
town and procured a jug of molasses, and on his way home, follow- 
ing a dim trail across the unsettled prairie, he met a stalwart Indian. 
The Indians in those days were friendly, yet McDuffy did not feel 
entirely at ease, being alone and unarmed and far from help if 
needed. They approached each other in a friendly manner, however, 
when the Indian seeing the jug, pointed to it and said: "Visky, me 
have some." McDuffy answered "melasses, ye villain;"' the Indian 
repeated "visky;" "melasses, I say, ye bloodj' son of a gun," said 
McDuffy; "visky," said the Indian again, and made a grab for the 
jug. "Melasses, ye red divil," answered McDuffy, as he struck the 
Indian on the head with his cane, knocking him down. "Melasses," 
uttered McDuffy at every stroke, as he hammered poor Lo. and then 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 521 

started homeward at full run, muttering "Melasses, be jabers, and 
whisky too, but divil a drap will that black baste get av it now, I 
say." 

STATISTICS. 

The population of the township in 1860, was 8«; in 1865. 367; in 
1870, 550; in 1875, 797; and in 1880, 845. 

Many of the people of this town are Scotchmen, and they were 
the first to settle in the town, but there is now quite a settlement of 
Scandinavians found here. 

In 1879 there was reported in the town: Horses, 401; cows, 466; 
other cattle, 482; mules, 15; sheep, 1,599; hogs, 523; sewing ma- 
chines, 41; organs, 9. 

The assessed value of real property for same year was, $190,263; 
personal, $55,710; total, $245,973. Total amount assessed on same, 
$4,095.17. 

The agricultural products of the town for 1879, were as follows: 
Wheat, 48,500 bushels; oats, 39,200 bushels; corn, 57,000 bushels; 
barley, 1,900 bushels; potatoes, 3,600 bushels; syrup, 1,500 gallons; 
flax seed, 975 bushels; apple trees growing, 4,100; apples, 320 bush- 
els; wool, 6,550 pounds; butter, 30,000 pounds; honey, 250 pounds; 
total number of acres of cultivated land, 7,100. 

A roll of honor, embracing the names of the "ancients" of this 
town, has already been given, but another list must now be pre- 
sented, of those not already named, who resided in the town prior 
to the close of 1879, and many of whom took an active interest in 
the affairs and progress of the town during many years. The 
names of all cannot be given, because unknown to the writer, or 
unobtainable at this time. Among the well known names, there 
appears, Q. Andrews, S. M. Alvey, Wm. Alvey, C. Alcock, Even 
Anderson, Thos. Bailey, N. G. Bailey, H. C. Brown, M. W. Butler, 
L. Bemis, O. Casidy, W. F. Cox, Andrew Carson, Wm. Carson, M 
A. Carson, T. W. Cotton, M. M. Cox, D. Coman, J. Currier, C. Col 
ter, John Chestnut, Wm. H. Childs, E. A. Dutcher, J. Douglass, D 
Davis, J. Everson, O. Eddy, K. Evanson, W. H. Pinch, W. D. Ful 
ler, J. Foster, D. Gray, C. Gray, Jas. Geddes, O. N. Gardner, W. C 
Hall, D. T. Hodge, S. G. Hodge, E. Harding, Jno. A. Hynes, V. V. 
Hinman, J. Hodge. D. Hynes, A. Hassing, A. J. Hill, M. A. Hawk 
O. A. Holt, E. J. Hendricks, H. Jones, O. Jenson, J. W. Jenkins. Sr. 
J. W. Jenkins, Jr., T. J. Jenkins, E. Johnson, J. Kinney, A. Klas 
sen, E. J. Lein, Lars Larson, J. B. Lien, M. C. Litch, B. J. Lein 
H. Larson, O. J. Lein, J. J. Lein, J. Lee, W. E. and D. McNeil, B 
McDermot, W. McNeil, P. M. Marston, J. McGuiggan, P. C. McCol 
ley, Nat'l McColley, E. L. Malmain, G. McKay, Hugh McDuffy, J. 
Monigal. Alonzo McColley, S. B. Miller, C. Marston, J. E. Nesset 
Jens 0. Nesset, M. Nicholson, B. Olsen, O. Olsen, J. Olsen, G. 01 



522 IIISTOHY OF 

sen. M. Peterson, A. J. Petlit, G. Petlit, W. J. Pettit, J. D. Rorman, 
M. S. Reynolds, A. Raddue, A. Richter, L. S. Reed, E. H. Rowley, 
W. G. Reed, J. Rusho, A. Raymond. E. Stillman. Geo. Sheid, C. C. 
Snare, J. Smith, W. W. Smith, .J. P. Smith. W. Smith, A. E. 
Springer, M. Springer, J. Sharpley, M. Scheid, C. Springer, H. L. 
Springer, A. Traynor. P. Thompson. A. W. Tenny, M. T. Thayer, 
A. Trowbridge, W. M. Toler, O. Thompson, T. B. Thorstonson, B. 
Thorstonson, K. Thompson, H. Thompson, E. C. Thorson, Wm. 
Waldren, Sr., L. Waldren, D. Wood. S. S. Wrooley, C. L. Wigan, Z. 
Wheeler, H. Westover, J. White, G. G. Young. The railroad mar- 
kets and general trading points of this town are the village of Del- 
aven and Winnebago City. Considering its proximity to railroads, 
its fertile soil, its industrious, progressive inhabitants, there is a 
grand future for this township. The second generation of its peo- 
ple will see its lands worth from fifty to seventy-five dollars an acre. 



CHAPTEII V. 



WINNEBAGO CITY TOWNSHIP AND VILLAGE. 

LOCATION. 

This township is congressional town one hundred and four (104) 
north, of range twenty-eight (28) west. It is bounded on the north 
by the town of Shelby, in Blue Earth county, on the east by the 
township of Delavan, on the south by Verona township and on the 
west by the township of Nashville, in Martin county. The township 
lies in the northwest corner of our county. 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 

The average elevation of the town above the level of the sea is 
estimated at ten hundred and eighty (1080) feet. The elevation of 
the Blue Earth river at the north line of the county, in this town, 
is approximately 990 feet. The depth of the drift here to bed rock, 
exceeds, probably, 150 feet. The bed rock is magnesian limestone, 
as was indicated in the boring of the steam mill well, which is 230 
feet deep. The greater portion of the surface of the township may 
be denominated undulating prairie, with high bluffs along the course 
of the river. The soil has the same general characteristics of that 
of the county generally, being a black loam, slightly sandy, deep and 
fertile. 

Good water is obtained anywhere in sufificient quantities for do- 
mestic use, by digging or boring, to a moderate depth. The main 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 523 

stream of the Blue Earth river passes almost centrally northward, 
through the town. A small branch of Elm creek is found in the 
southwest corner of the town. The bottom lands and bluffs of the 
river and some of the uplands, are well timbered. Some of the tim- 
ber being of superior size and quality, and being centrally located 
through the town, is quite convenient to all parts of the town, and 
has been of incalculable value to the people. The inhabitants have 
also been quite enterprising in growing artificial groves, and the 
prairies are everywhere dotted over with these homestead pro- 
tectors. 

THE NAME. 

This township was named by the special commissioners, in 1858, 
"Winnebago City, after the village of that name, located in the town 
at an early day. For information as to how, by whom and when, 
the village of Winnebago was founded, the reader is referred to the 
general history of the county, for the year 1856. In relation to the 
subject, it will be sufficient to say here, that the village was located 
by a company, consisting of Andrew C. Dunn, James Sherlock, B. 
H. Burritt, W. N. Dunham and C. H. Parker. It is situated upon 
the southeast quarter of section 34. and the southwest quarter of 
section 35. The original town site contained three hundred and 
twenty acres. Several additions to the town have been laid out 
since. It was the first design of the proprietors to name the new 
village MiddletowD, after a fine city of that name in Connecticut — 
a name which was thought quite appropriate, as the village lay 
about midway between Shelbyville on the north, and Blue Earth 
City on the south. Tlie proprietors petitioned for a post- office of 
that name, but could not get it, as there was another post-office of 
that name in the State. This name was then abandoned, and the 
place was called Winnebago, but they could not get an office of that 
name, as there was another Winnebago in the State, and so finally 
they named the village Winnebago City. This was. too, in accord- 
ance with the usual custom in those days, of naming every new town 
a city. It sounded well abroad. 

The word Winnebago is derived from the Indian language and 
is the name of a tribe of Indians. The name was originally spelled 
Winnibegouk, and signified in the original language — men from the 
salt ivater. The French gave them the name of Puants or Fauns. 
They were always a haughty and turbulent people, shiftless and 
given to wandering. The fortunes of this tribe illustrate the fate 
which has attended most of our Indian tribes, and as their name will 
probably forever be identified with our county, as well as with other 
localities in our State and in Wisconsin, a very brief synopsis of 
their history may interest the reader. 



524 EISTOltY OF 

It appears that they, with other wild tribes orij^inally occupied 
the valley of the Minnesota river, but were fiually driven out by the 
ancient Dakotas. The evidence, however, that such was the fact, 
is not very clear, or satisfactory. It is said that the language of 
the Winnebagoes is so similar to that of the Dakotas, as to indicate 
a common origin and relationship. They doubtless belonged to the 
Dakota family. 

The French exploi-ers and traders, early in the seventeenth 
century, found the Winnebagoes occupying a large part of Wiscon- 
sin. They were then a very powerful people, and continued in pos- 
session of the country for many years. 

In 1832, they ceded all their lands, south of the Fox and Wis- 
consin rivers, to the United States. Subsequently they were re- 
moved to what was known as the "Neutral Ground," in Iowa, where 
in 1842, there were some eight hundred of them on Turkey river, 
but more of them still remained back in Wisconsin. From the Iowa 
location they wei'e removed about the year 1848, toa tract of country 
obtained from the Ojibways, between Sauk and Long Prairie and 
Crow Wing rivers, in this State. In 1855 they again removed and 
found a home on a reservation provided for them in Blue Earth 
county, a county adjoining this on the north. Here they had pos- 
session of a very fine tract of country and were next door neighbors 
to us. In 1863, after the Sioux outbreak, they were disarmed and 
the remnant of their tribe was removed to a reservation selected 
for them on Crow Creek, in Dakota, on the upper Missouri river. 
This proved a very unsuitable place for them, and again, in 18(36, 
their location was changed, and they were placed at Winnebago, 
Nebraska. Here, in 1874, they numbered 1,445 .souLs, and had made 
some advances in civilization, as they had at that time quite a num- 
ber of farms, cottages, stock, and clothed themselves as white peo- 
ple, and had three schools in operation. Some of the tribe, however, 
still remained in Wisconsin, and a few of them are still to be seen in 
Minnesota, but only a few years will pass away, when they, as many 
other tribes, will have become extinct. 

There is a county in the state of Illinois and one In Iowa, adjoin- 
ing ours on the south, and one in Wisconsin, named Winnebago, and 
a large lake of that name in the latter state, and a township in Hous- 
ton county, in our State, and three or four post-offices in the United 
States, named Winnebago. 

But now to resume our history of the village. The village was 
fii'st incorporated in the year 1857, in which act A. C. Dunn was des- 
ignated as president, and E. H. Burritt, James Sherlock, C. H. 
Parker and W. N. Dunham, were named trustees. But it was more 
fully and completely incorporated by the act of the legislature of 
1874. Many amendments have been made to these original acts. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 525 

which will be found noted from year to year in the general history 
of the county. The first incorporation was procured mainly for the 
purpose of securing title to the town site lands from the general 
government and the subsequent division of the property among the 
original owners. One of the great events in the history of the vil- 
lage was the location of the United States Land Office at this place 
in 1861. It proved to be a great benefit to the village, and also to 
the county. The office remained here until August, 1869, when it 
was removed to Jackson, Minn. The first newspaper published in 
the town was the "Whig of 76," Carr Huntington, proprietor and 
editor. The first issue occurred on the thirty-first day of October, 
1863. The subsequent history of the newspaper press of this town 
will be found in the general history of the county. Mr. J. L. Chris- 
tie bought out this paper in March, of the next year. 

J. L. CHRISTIE. 

The facts of a somewhat remarkable career, condensed from a fuller state- 
ment. Indomitable pluck and energy win at last. 

He was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, December 17th, 1841. In 1844 his 
father with his family removed to Calhoun county, 111. — a pestilential region. 
Here his father, a brother and an uncle died. The family, poverty sticken and in 
broken health, return to Salineville, Columbiana county, Ohio. About 1851 
they removed to Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Christie engaged in regular employ- 
ment at fourteen years of age, though without education, and in poor 
health. In April, 1858, he came with H. W. Holley, a brother-in-law, to 
Chatfleld, Minnesota, and went into the office of the Ckitfiilcl Ripublicaii 
and learned the printing trade. In November, 1861, he removed with Mr. 
Holley to Winnebago City, in this county. Here be worked for a short time in 
the United States Land Office. In March, 1862, he got a position on the News, 
published at Blue Earth City. In April he leased a half interest from Mr. Bon- 
well. In August the Sioux outbreak occurred, and the paper went down, 
though several numbers were published a little later. He enlisted in a company 
of thirty days' men, to put down the Indians, and served thirty-five days and 
was discharged at Chatfleld, Minn. He again enlisted at Faribault, Rice county 
in Company H, Mounted Rangers, for one year, and was discharged in the fall 
of 1863. 

In March, 1864,he bought the office of "The Whig of 76," at Winnebago City, 
and changed the name of the pipor to T/ie Free Homestead. In February, 1865, 
he leased the Homestead for one year, and enlisted in Bittery H, First Heavy 
Artillery and was commissioned first lieutenant— went to Chattanooga, Tenn., 
where the company remained until September, when it was mustered out. In 
October, 1865, he returned home and assumed the control of the Homestead. 

He was married, October 10th, 1866, to Miss Annie Coggrave, of Faribault 
county. Five children have been th-i fruits of the marriage. 

In February, 1867, he sold the Homestead to E. A. Hotchkiss. In August, 
1868, he bought the Sonthern 3finnesotain, a,l Rushford, Minn., and moved the 
outfit to Lanesboro, Minn , and on September 10th issued the first number of 
the Lanesboro Herald, which, after three years, he sold, and in November, 1871, 
returned, with his family, to Winnebago City, and for a time worked in various 
places, until April, 1873, he bought the Houston, County Jjinial, nt Cdlei'taia., 
Minn. In November, 1873, he sold the /ourjiai, but worked in the office until 



526 H/STOIIV OF 

February, 1874, when he and fiiinily returned atfiiin to Winnebago City and here 
boukfht the Wiutiehago city I'rcHs. He published the PrMs nearly six years and 
sold It in November, 1879, to Wni. Allen. In November, 1879, in partnership 
with Gen. Baker, he purchased the iV((;iAa/o r/iitoii and the Weconl offices, con- 
solidated theii), and produced the Mankato Free Press. In August, 1880, they 
sold out to Woodard and Foss. 

In October, 1880, he removeil to lUue Earth City and established there the 
Faribault Countij Journal, which he published about a year, and then in Decem- 
ber, 1881, he removed with his press material to Superior, Wisconsin, and 
united the material with.that of the Superior Times, owned by Mr. Hordon.and 
in January, 1882, he took up the work of editing and publishing that journal. 
Hereiireat prosperity, certainly deserved, attended his venture. He aci|uired 
considerable wealth. Mr. Christie has always been a Republican. He and his 
family wore memliers of the Methodist church. Mr. Christie and family con- 
tinued to reside at Superior until his death, which occurred in December, 1895. 

The Southern Minnesota Railroad (now the C. M. & St. P.) was 
completed to the village early in 1871, and remained the western 
terminus of the road until 1878, when it was extended westward. 
And during all this time, this little city was the principal grain 
market and trading point of a large district of country. 

In the year 187'J, the St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad, (now 
the C, St. P., M. and O. R. R.), running from Lake Crystal south- 
ward, was built through this city and township, giving the city 
direct outlets to the east, west, north and south. The town gave 
aid, at various times, in the form of local bonds, or town bonds, to 
encourage the building of these roads, as did other towns in the 
county. 

FIRST SETTLEMENT. 

Prom a letter received from Austin R. Nichols, it very satisfac- 
torily appears that he and Henry Roberts were the first settlers of 
this township. He says they were in the town, and cut house logs 
on the 16th and 17th days of April, 1855, but left the county — that 
they returned in June, following, and that their actual residence 
dates from June 8th, 1855 — that Moses Sailor moved upon his 
claim four days before they did on theirs, and that Ebenezer 
Crosby came in a few days after they did. There are several 
slight errors in the above statements, but of no great importance, 
however, and such as might easily occur in the recollection of 
events so long past. 

Mr. Sailor settled upon his claim, and commenced residing upon 
it on the twenty-fifth day of May, 1855, which was fourteen, instead 
of four days before Mr. Nichols and Mr. Roberts located. Mr. 
Sailor had also been in the county and upon the lands he subse- 
quently claimed, on the eighth day of April, preceding his settle- 
ment. Mr. Sailor also informed the writer that he well recollects 
that sometime after he had commenced living on his land — some 
days, he did not remember how many, Messrs. Roberts, Nichols, 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 527 

and he thought, one other person, at least the two former called on 
him and stated that they had struck his (Sailor's) trail (wagon 
track), in the north part of the county, and had followed it up until 
they found him. They had not then definitely taken their claims. 
The reader is referred to the history of the year 1855 for a more full 
account of Mr. Sailor's settlement. 

The following schedule is a list of the residents of this town in 
June, 1860, according to the national census taken at that time, 
which will be of interest to the older settlers of the town. 

Aldrich — Wm. F., Mrs, Louisa, Charles. Burt — Grover C. Badger— Jamsa, 
Mrs. Harriet, Samuel, Amelia, Joseph. Burnett — Warren, Mrs. Lucinda, Am- 
brose. BroMii— Franklin. JSaitei/— Thomas, Mrs. Julia, Nathan. Boling — Rich- 
ard, Mrs. Jane, Anna, William. Cleveland— Gay K. Camp— Sarah A. Coygrave— 
Elizabeth. John, Hannah. C/n7.so)i— Sumner, Mrs. Rachel. Crosbi/— Ebenezer, 
Reuben, Angeline, Calista. Clabaugh — John, Mrs. Mary, James, Lavenna, 
Susan, Cornelia, Emeline, Luther. Chapel— John B., Mrs. Catharine, Charles, 
Mar}', Sarah, Alice, Laura, Emily, Jane, Helen, Kate. Chapin — Henry. Bunn — 
Andrew C, Mrs. Diana J., Mary. Bodge — Trustern, Mrs. Adeline, Adelia, 
Phebe, Albert, Mary. Budley—ljoya,], Mrs. Betsey, Elbert, Clara, Rufus. Bus- 
tin — William, Mrs. Abby, Willie, Fannie, Minnie. Bllis — Alva, Mrs. Ruth, 
Millard, Alvio. Edwards— John B., Mrs. Elizabeth, James, Martha. Minnie. 
Goodnow — George H., Mrs. Laura, Julius, Charles, Laura, Susan. George — 
Thomas, Mrs. Flora, Jane, Hiram, John, Jesse. Gilnian — Horace H. Griffey — 
A. D., Mrs. Helen. Howe, William, Mrs. Sarah. Hartman — Philip, Mrs. 
Elizabeth, Joseph. Humes — John P. /amisod— Joseph, Mrs. Susan, Minnie. 
/c«)jess— Thomas. Kimball — Charles S., Mrs. Mary, Ella, Horace. Kendall — 
Edwin, Mrs. Almira, Edwin, iord— Asiel. Latimer — Smith, Mrs. Sarah, Ida, 
Ellura, Walter. Latimer — Jacob A., Mrs. Julia, Daniel, Nancy, Mary. Leise — 
Benjamin F., Mrs. Lodena. Lenox — John, Mrs. Mahala, Jacob, Silas, George, 
John. Moulton— Geo. K., Mrs. Susan. Madison— Yi9.\\ey . Moore— John, Arch- 
ibald, Andrew. Miller — Mary, John, William, Peter, Caroline, Miles. Miller — 
William A , Mrs. Julia, Elbert, Ella. Jl/cC'a6e— Cornelius . Nichols— Kwstm 
R., Mrs. Mandana, Frederick, Rufus, Philena. Oiig/ier— Nicholas. Pierce — 
E. Pterce— Frederick M. Porte?-— John F., Mrs. Susan, John, Daniel, Henry. 
Mary. Pai(en— James, Mrs. Ann, Eliza, Isabel, Jasper, Mary. Randall — Alvin 
R., Mrs. Harriet, Charles, Elva, Williard. Poberts— Helen. Sherman— A. P. 
Mrs. Celia, Carlos, Julius, William, Edward. Spickerman — Henry, Mrs. Eliza- 
beth, Samuel, Alva. Smi(/i— William. Smith— Floyd . Spencer— John, Mrs. 
Sarah, Ellen, Mary, Sarah, John W., Emily, Rebecca. Sfiner- Joshua. Still — 
Wilson, Mrs. Ellen, Charles, Edgar. Stauffer—Vf iUiam, Mrs. Elizabeth, Eme- 
line Melinda, Henry, Amelia. Terhune — Henry, Mrs. Sarah, George, Mary, Ann. 
Van A^ice— Cornelius, Mrs. Susan, Caroline, Sarah, Sephronia, Philander, Cle- 
ment, Henry. Wiltsey— Simeon S., Mrs. Mary, Sarah, Emma, Mary, Jacob, 
Hannah Wheeler — J. M., Mrs. Mary. Weir — Joseph L., Caroline. Weir — 
George A. IFeir— Daniel P. , Vandali3., Elizabeth. I'oimg— Hiram L., Mrs. 
Emma. Yoiint — Sela A,, Mrs. Priscilla, William. 

And these are they, who constitute that honorable company, 
who forever hereafter are to be known as the old settlers, of Win- 
nebago City township. 



528 HISTORY OF 

Here is a summary of certain items of interest, which explain 
themselves, taken from the census rolls of 1800. Surely that was 
the day of small things. 

Acres of land improved, 7.55: value of farms, $20,000; value of farm iiuple- 
meuts and machinery, $1,555. Numl)er of horsei-, 20: number of milch cows, 30; 
number of working oxen, 18; number of other cattle, 43; number of sheep, 18; 
number of swine, 87; value of live stock, $4,257. 

ORGANIZATION. 

The township was duly organized for civil purposes, in October, 
1858, by the election of town officers, which organization has con- 
tinued, unbroken, to this day. The town officers in 1879, the last 
year of this historical sketch, were the following named persons. 
Supervisors, C. McCabe, chairman, H. C. Shufelt and N. H. Dorsey; 
town clerk, W. W. Quiggle; assessor, F. M. Pierce; treasurer, C. S. 
Kimball; justices, C. H. Radford and J. V. Mell; constable, H. I. 
Kimball. 

VARIOUS ITEMS. 

The first building on the town site, was a log structure twelve 
by fourteen feet, and in this cabin the first store was kept by one 
Thomas Foley, for C. H. Parker, of St. Paul, Minn. 

The first hotel was erected in 1856, but not completed until 
early in 1857. It was a log building twenty by thirty-six feet and 
one and one-half story in height. It was built by Dr. W. N. Town- 
drow, with the aid of the town proprietors. This was, in fact, the 
first dwelling house on the town site. During the Indian excite- 
ment in the spring of 1857, this house served a good purpose as a 
fort for the early settlers. 

The first saw mill in the county was erected here in 1857. The 
mill was first owned by the town proprietors, but was subsequently 
purchased and operated for some years by Geo. H. Goodnow, at one 
time sheriff of the county. Mr. Goodnow attached a set of burrs, 
to the power, and this was the first grist mill in the county. 

Blue Earth Valley Lodge. No. 27, A.-. F.-. A.-. M. •. was institu- 
ted in this city, in 1858, and was the first Masonic lodge in the 
county. Subsequently, a Chapter — Mt. Horeb — of R. •. A.-. M.-.was 
instituted here. 

A large, and for some years, a very flourishing Grange of the 
Patrons of Husbandry, was organzed in 1873. Before the close of 
1879. Valley Lodge, No. 33, A. O.U. W.. and Winnebago City Lodge, 
No. 30. I. O. of O. F. had been organized here. The exact dates of 
institution, are not at hand. 

There are two imi)roved water powers in the township. One 
is on section three, where a grist mill has been erected, and has 
been long known as "Woodland Mills." There is a school house at 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 529 

this locality and other buildings and a post-office named "Cornet." 
The other improved water power is on section thirty-three, and 
here also is a grist mill, known as the "Banner Mills." 

During the civil war, the town voted liberal sums in town bonds, 
to encourage enlistments in the military service, all of which boun- 
ties were promptly paid. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

The subject of education attracted the attention of the people of 
this town at a very early day. The first school district in the county 
was formed in this town in 1857, on petition of John Clabaugh and 
others. A school house was erected in Winnebago City in 1858. 
This was a small, frame building. Some years later, a large, frame, 
two-story building, of a number of apartments, was built. A good, 
graded district school has been kept here for many years. There 
are six or seven school districts organized in the town, and good 
school houses erected in each. The first school in the village, and 
the first, probably, in the township, was taught by Miss A. D. Nich- 
ols, afterwards Mrs. G. B. Kingsley. 

The various religious denominations have oi-ganized societies in 
the town, several of which^tlie Methodist and Presbyterian^were 
instituted soon after the first settlement. Several of the societies 
have fine churches in Winnebago City. There is a church building 
on section seven, and one on section twenty. 

The history of this township, having been, for so many years, 
closely identified with the general history of the county, many facts 
of historical interest, relating to the village and township, will be 
found in the history of the several years which constitutes Part First 

HON. JACOB ALEXANDER LATIMER. 

Mr. Latimer, tor many years a prominent citizen of Winnebago City town- 
ship, and of the county, was born in the State of Tennessee, on the twentieth 
day of April, 1827. The family removed to the State of Illinois in 1830. Mr. 
Latimer's opportunities were very slim, in his youth, for an education, but he 
overcame the difficulties by much study and reading. He was married in Febru- 
ary, 1850, to Miss Julia A. Meek, and they have had six children. They came to 
Minnesota in the spring of 1857, and settled on section eleven, in Winnebago City 
township, where he has ever since resided, engaged, largely, in general farming 
operations. Mr. Latimer has always taken a large interest in farming, since 
coming to this county, and has filled a prominent place in our Agricultural 
Society, having been president of the same and supported it, in every way, for- 
many years. He was also prominent in theGrange, in the days when that institu- 
tion flourished. la politics, Mr. Latimer was brought up a democrat, but early 
espoused the anti-slavery cause and helped, subsequently, to organize the re- 
publican party in Illinois, and also in this county. Before leaving Illinois, he 
was tendered the nomination for sheriff of Knox county, but he declined it, as 
he had made up his mind to come to Minnesota. Here he has frequently held town 
and school offices, and he was elected a member of the state legislature in 1858, 



530 UISTOltY OF 

and was a member of the House of Representatives in 1864, and held tlie office 
of county cominissioner in I86!i, 18T0 and 1871, and, in llie meantinie, was a 
member of thi- Slate Senate in 1870. Mr. Latimer is a member of the 
Presbyterian <-hiir('h. 

HON. F. M. PIKRCE. 

Mr. Pierce was born in Putney, Vermont. Fie was brought up on a farm, 
and received his education in the common schools, and from an extensive 
course of reading.'. He learned the tra<le of marble cutter, and followed it until 
1854, wlien he came to the west on a prospectini,' tour. He returned to the 
east, and in 18.'>.5 he came to Iowa, and in May, 1856, he came to thiscounty and 
took up a claim in VVinneliago City township, which he proceeded to improve. 
Several years afterwards he opened a store in Winnebago City, where he re- 
mained for some twelve years, when he again returned to the farm, which con- 
tains two hundred and sixty acres of land. Farming has since been his busi- 
ness. Mr. Pierce was married in 18(>ii, to Miss Hattie Wetherell, of Mankato. 
To them have been born four children. 

He has frefiuently held town olMces. In 1874 he was elected to the State 
legislature, lower House, and attended the session of 187r>. Mr. Pierce is a re- 
publican in politics, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episco- 
pal church. 

HON. H. H. OILMAN. 

Mr. Oilman is a native of New Hampshire. He was born October 31st,1833. 
He spent his early years on a farm. His education was obtained in the common 
schools, and at an academy in Maine. In the spring of 1857 he came west, and 
located at Fulton, Illinois. In Octoljer, of the same year, he came to this 
county and took up some land in Winnebago City township. He afterwards 
entered one hundred and sixty acres of land, on which he has ever since lived. 
He has held various town offices, and was elected to the legislature, lower House, 
in 1876 and again in 1877. Mr. Oilman was married in \ii<0, to Miss Sophia 
Quiggle, who died two years later. In 1883 he married .Johanna Shatz. He had 
one child by his llrst wife and three by his second. Mr. Oilman has always 
been a republican in politics. He cast his tirst presidential vote for Fremont. 

OTHER RESIDENTS. 

The following list presents the names of many persons, not al- 
ready named, who were residents of this township prior to the close 
of the year 1879: 

M. Ayers, T. O. Allen, Wni. Allen, P. H. Allen, J. A. Armstrong, S. J. Ab- 
bott, C. Albee, E. H. Burrit, L. D. Rabcock, Ira Babcock, F. M. Babcock, Jeff. 
Bathrick, Wm. Brockman, Wm. Brown, Geo. Baxter, E. Bersie, Geo. Baker, R. 
M. Benson, J. F. Benson, W. Baxter, C. D. Bates, F. M. Brown, C. Comstock, E. 
G. Collins, H. Crist, T. R. Christie, L. K. Carson, H. C. Case, L. Comstock, W. 
Comstock, Jas.Crays, A. J. Crusen, II. A. Chase, W. J. Comstock, S.Dutcher.R. 
Dudley, N. W. Davis, B. P. Doud, D. Damon. N. H. Dorsey, F. Duncason, C. 
Dennie, D. E. Dingman, Frank Deudon, John Deudon, T. J. Derba, J. Derr, H. 
J. Davlin, A. B. Davis, \V. N. Dunham, A. Eastwood, T. S.Ellingson, S.Foster, 
C. Fessenden, M. J. Fellows, H. K. Fellows, B. C. Foot, J. K. Fairbanks, t,. C. 
Fowler, E. Fletcher, D. Fagen, A. L. Fox, J. S. Green, J. P. George, B. F. Good- 
win, D.T. Goodwin, A. C.Gayman,G.H.Goodnow,Thos.George,Z.G. Harrington,?. 
Huber,W.H. Huber.G. C. Hannum, O. G. Hannum, R. II. Harvey, H. W. Holley, 
C F. Howard, L Ilargraves, A. M. Hewitt, W. W. Howe, O. Harvey, H. H. 
Howe, C. Holgate, J.IIerman, J. Eartman, P. Hartman, L.C. Harrington, J. \V. 




H. H. OILMAN. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 531 

Huffiuan. E. A. Hotchkiss, W. Z. Haight , F. F. Harlow, H. M. Hall, G. N. Hillman, 

E. H. Hutchins, A.. A. Huatington, A, Jordan, Isaac Kamrar, J. Koeble, H. H. 
Lewis, D. Lossing, D. A. Latimer, M. Loonier, J. Leet, P. Lutz, Geo. Lattin, H. 
Lester, D. Lothrop, A. Lord, A. Latimer, W. K. Latimer, E. L. Maine, Paul 
McKinstry, H. McKinstry, J. V. Mell, J. Mapson, R. Mapson, 0. Merkle, P. Mur 
phy, L. Murphy, J. McKibbin. S. Mitchell, G. M. Miller, J. N.Miller, Geo. Mas- 
ters, A. R. Nichols, J. B. Nichols, G. E Nelson, C. Osman, C. H. Patten, C. H. 
Payne, J. G. Paschke, J. Patterson, J. H. Purdy, W. W. Quiggle, T. L. Rice, O. 
C. Retslop, A. J. Reynolds, B. G. Reynolds, S. Rowe, Silas Richardson, J. S. 
Robertson, A. Robinson, J. H. Robinson, B. F. Robinson, Jas. Sherlock, W. W. 
Sleepier, J. Sharpe, N. D. Satterle, T. A. Sherman, N. W.Sargent. A. H.Schoon- 
over, J. ShatTer, C. Swartwood, C G. Slagel, F. Scholl, .L H. Sherin, H. C.Shu- 
felt, J. W. Spaukling, J. Stauffer, G. W. Spickerman, E. Schermerhorn, J. 
Spencer, R. Sherrin, Wm. Smith, J. B. Tyler, Levi Turner, L. Turner, W. N. 
Towndrow, U. J. True, P. B. Ward, A. Whitney, J. A. White, M. T. White, Geo. 
Wormwood, F. AVilcox, R. M. Willsnn, J. H. Welch, D. P. Wasgatt, E. Wallace, 

F. N. Ware, J. M. Wheeler, J. 3. White, S. Wright, J. S. Wallace, C. Wallace, E. 
Weed, J. F. Winship, B. K. Whitney, C. Weaver, N. G. West, A. H. Weed, IL 
S. Young. 

SOME STATISTICS. 

The population of the township was 286 In 1860, 463 in 1865, 1,106 in 1870, 
1,158 in 1875, 1,426 in 1880. These figures include the village. 

Stock and certain other property, in the township in 1879: Horses, 525; 
cows, 499; other cattle, 432; mules, 7; sheep, 4.30; hogs, 500; sewing machines, 74; 
organs 23. 

Assessed value of real property in 1879, $.361,113; personal property in 1879, 
$89,167; total, 8450,280. Total tax assessed for 1879, $11,460 95. 

Agricultural products in 1879. (Grain in bushels). Wheat, 44,000; oats, 
33,000; corn, 42,000; barfey, 800; potatoes, 2,100; gallons syrup, 2,241; flaxseed, 
406 bushels; apple trees growing, 5,0C0; wool, 1,900 lbs.; butter, 3,700 lbs.; (Item 
of butter not correctly reported;: honey, 360 lbs. Acres of cultivated land 
in 1879, 6,000. 

Up to the close of 1879 Ihi^ town had furnished to the public service the 
following named citizens, in the several offices named: Members of the State 
Legislature, G. K. Cleveland, J. A. Latimer, E. H. Hutchins, F. M. Pierce and 
H. H. Gilman. Board of Commissioners, E. Crosby, J. L. Weir, G. H. Good- 
now, C. S. Kimball, Jas. Grays, J. A. Latimer and E. H. Hutchins. Judges of 
Probate, G. K.'Cleveland and A. F. De La Vergne. County Treasurers, Wm. 
Dustin and R. B. Johnson. County Superintendent of Schools, S. J. Abbott. 
Sheriffs, T. Foley, G. H. Goodnow, Chas. Chaple, F. F. Harlow and A. B. Davis. 
County Surveyors, S. A. Safford and G. A. Weir. County Attorneys, J. L. 
Weir and Andrew C. Dunn. Coroner, C. S. Kimball. 



532 niSTojty or 



(JHAPTEli VI. 



VERONA TOWNSHIP. 

This town is ••land-survey" township one hundred and three 
(103) north, of range twenty-eight (28) west. It is bounded on the 
north by Winnebago City township. On the east by Prescott town- 
ship. On the south bj' Jo Daviess township, and on the west by the 
town of Center Creek, in Martin county. 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 

The surface of this town is quite undulating, and is cut by the 
main stream of the Blue Earth river, which runs by a very tortuous 
course, northwestwardly through the east half of the town, coming 
into the town at the southeast corner, and going out near the north- 
west corner of section three. There are also three other streams, 
South creek. Middle creek and Elm creek, all considerable brooks, 
nearly two miles apart, running from the west In an easterly direc- 
tion, and emptying into the Blue Earth river. 

The soil is deep and fertile. The Blue Earth river bottom-lands 
and bluffs are well timbered clear through the town, but the re- 
mainder of the town is rolling prairie, dotted over with fine groves, 
grown by the settlers. 

Few, if any, towns in the county present greater natural advan- 
tages than this one, and the rural scenery here, in ,the summer 
months, especially, is unsurpassed anywhere in this region. Belts of 
natural timber, artificial groves, substantial farm houses and barns, 
and wide, cultivated fields present their attractions on every hand. 

The average elevation of the town above the level of the sea, is 
eleven hundred feet. The depth of the drift above bed rock, has 
not been determined in this town, but is doubtless considerably over 
one hundred feet. The valley of the Blue Earth river is from fifty 
to eighty feet in depth below the general level of the country. 

"Indications of the existence of cretaceous beds containing lig- 
nite are reported to have been found in the southwest quarter of 
section 11." (Geol. Rep't., p. 460). Hopes were entertained at one 
time, of the existence of stove coal in this town, but such hopes are 
doubtless delusive. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 533 

NAME. 

It appears that at a very early day in the history of the county, 
it was designed to establish a mail route from Owatonna, in Steele 
county, in this State, to Mr. Stoddard's residence, in this town, and 
Mr. A. B. Cornell, of Owatonna, who it is said got the route estab- 
lished, gave the name of Verona to this terminus of the route. 

Subsequently, when in 1858, the special commissioners were 
naming the towns, this name was given by them to this town. And 
Verona is the name of an important province in Italy, the capital 
city of which is named Verona, and is one of the finest and most 
ancient of the cities of Europe, dating back to the days of the 
Roman Empire. The people of this province and city are known 
by the name of Veronese, a name which would be just as appro- 
priate for the good people who reside in our small province of 
Verona. This name seems to be quite a favorite one, as there are a 
dozen jDOst-offices in the United States named Verona. And we need 
not forget Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen of Verona." 

FIRST SETTLEMENT. 

The first settler of this town was Henry T. Stoddard. He lo- 
cated in the town on the southeast quarter of section eleven (11), on 
the fourteenth day of June, 1855. This was the first tract of land 
claimed in the town, and the first one "proved up" upon in the 
county. He was accompanied by Newel Dewey. Rev. James G. 
Whitford took a claim in the town in June, 1855, since known as the 
Bassett farm. Mr. Whitford left the county, but returned in the 
spring of 1856, and settled here. 

Mr. Furness took a claim, since known as the Nelson farm, in 
the summer of 1855, and moved upon it in the spring of 1856. 

Henry T. Stoddard was born in Alford, Berkshire county, Mass., in 1822. 
In the spring of 1844 he emigrated with his parents to Wisconsin. After sev- 
eral years, they settled at Oakfleld, Fon du Lac county, where Henry continued 
to reside, until he located in Minnesota. He was married in 1852 to Miss Sarah 
E. Dewey. The fruits of this marriage were eight children, four of whom pre- 
ceded their father to the other shore 

Mr. Stoddard, in company with his father-in-law, Newel Dewey, visited 
Minnesota in .Tune, 1855, as above stated, and selected lands or "claims" In this 
township, soon after wh'ch they returned to Wisconsin. In November of that 
year (1855), he brought his family to Minnesota and located upon the lands be- 
fore selected. He was accompanied at this time by his father and Henry R. 
Walker, and Newel Dewey above named. He was the first actual settler of 
Verona township. Here he continued to reside for twenty-nine years, when he 
sold out and purchased a farm near Blue Earth City, where he resided at the 
time of his death. Mr. Stoddard was always a farmer by occupation. He took 
much interest in the early settlement of the county. He was a member of the 
first board of county commissioners, and one of the first three assessors of the 
county, and held various town and school offices during his life. He was, also, 
for many years, one of the vice presidents of the Old Settlers' Society. He died 



534 iiis-rony nj- 

April 27lh, 1891, in tlit' seventieth year of his age. His wife and four children 
survive liini. 

The following list, copied from the census rolls taken in June 1860, 
gives the names of all the residents, old and young, of the town at 
that time, and embraces all those who may be justly deemed the tirst 
settlers of this town. It should, however, be noted here that some 
of the i)ersons named in this list very soon after it was taken, be- 
came residents of the town of Prescott, adjoining. 

^i;(*)i— I'atriclt H., Mrs. Maria, iirotoi— Lorenzo W., Mrs. Catharine, Asaph, 
Nettie, Matilda Jiarllett—Am^on, Mrs. Elizabeth, Li/.zie, Amelia, Anson, Jr. 
ii(n(/c»-Leonidas. liujeloic—Unvtv/eW H., Mrs. Jane S., Jane, France-;, John. 
iir««.sai(— Mitchel, Mrs. Margaret. Bailei/— John. C'oo/iWgt— Orlando, Mrs. 
Mary. Cooper— Martin, Mrs. Chloo, Sylvester, B.vron, Melissa, William, Joseph, 
Maria, Burton, Harney, Angeline. C/arA— William. DarJin -Ut'tny .]. Bavlin— 
Edward. DuhIhuu— Jesse FI., Mrs. Frances, Curtis, Lucy. V^raAe— Hradner E., 
Mrs. Sarah, Amanda. />i(C'(j(f— Moses, Mrs. Margaret, Moses, Jr.. Mitchel, 
Mary, Paulina, Sopha. AVihiie— Ferdinand. Eberliyic—Edwunl. Franklin— 
Nathan, Mrs. Sophronia, Flarriscm, Sarah, Hannah, Philip. Fra»i/I7i)i— Perry, 
Mrs. Sarah, William. ii\)ss— Nathaniel, Mrs. Fanny, Jay. jPoW^es— Benj. F., 
Mrs. Julia, Mary, Theodore, Emma. i*'oi/>e.s -Charles H , Araistine. Forbes— 
Betij. F.,. I r., Sophronia. Forces— Dudley. J'oj'vcji— Charles. i'V»A— David, Mrs. 
Sarah. Fi(//c/— Isaac, Mrs. Melissia, Albert, .Sarah, Franlc. (^VarrfiHier— Joseph. 
Oeixer — Fred. Garrison— T>a.\'](\ , Mrs. A'iolet, Julia, George. C?ri(/;/— Benjamin, 
rrreenmaii— William, Mrs. Charlotte. GoM.sjui(/i— Leonard. /////—David, Mrs. 
Cynthia, Orpha, Earnest, //arercro//— Jane, //oi//— Herman. Jr., Mrs. Sarah, 
Maria, Jannette. J/(()-/oif— Freeland F. //MH/uiy/oii— Eugene, Mrs. Evaline, 
Joseph, Flora, Ada, Henry, James, /luiniaii— Ann, George, William. Johnson 
— Erastus, Mrs. Mary, Mary. Johnson— RM B., Mrs. Ellen. Minnie, Don C. 
Z,'((/rf— Wm. Lyonn—Wm. JHciJejvs— James. Mrs. Charlotte, Elvia. Jilaxson — 
Thomas J., Mrs. Saliy, William, Charles, Henry, Edgar, Cornelia. jl/a.soH —Allen 
D . Mrs. Mary, Elliot. 3/oore- John M., Mrs. Mary. 3/or.ff— David H., Mrs. 
Emma. il/a»-.i(o(i— Samuel, Mrs. Sarah, Luselte, Lavinia, Curtis, Pervin, Se- 
lina, Mary. AX.'foii —George R., Mrs. Sarali, Albert, Alexander, Sarah, James, 
Harvey, Mary, Georgiana. iVe/son— George E., Alsaida, Anna, Henry. Pollock 
—Frederick. Powell— John W., Rev., Mrs. Rhoda, Sarah, Erasmus, Mary, Em- 
ma, Alice. PooJ- Sam'l A., Mrs. Elizabeth, Cornwall. /io'yer(.so»t— William J. 
C, Mrs. Martha. James, Margaret, Helen Alice. /fo/<er/.<OH— Ciiarles D., Mrs. 
Caroline. Hohinson—Ohed, Mrs. .Vmyrilla, Edna, Merritt. Franiclin, Fanny, 
Julia. 7f/Kxui»— Elisha, Mrs. Jerusha, Emma, Jane, Mary, Emrnel. Ring— 
David, Mrs. Elizabeth, Julia, Antoinette. Jesse. 7fei/)io/(/.s— Pulaski. Sweet— 
Alvin R., Mrs. Harriet, Welthy. Worth, Leland. Alice, Alvin, Charles. Shcpanl 
—Frank, Mrs. Mary, Frederick. S/otc — Isaac, Mrs. Salvina, Lewis, Mary, Sarah 
Theodore, Isidore, Isabel, Alice. Storj/— William, Mrs. Sarah. A'mi7/i— Carlos, 
Mrs. Laura, Leslie. /S'mti/i— Ira, Maria, Ira, Charles. *'mi7/i— John D. Si(»»i- 
7i«r— Edward, Mrs. Charlotte, Armenia, Herman. Stoddmd— Henry T., Mrs. 
Sarah, Fayette, Morton, Clarancy. I'Aoi)!- Harrison. 2/io(n— Gilbert. Town- 
(Zioio— Wm. N., Mrs. Harriet. George. 7'o(7ir((«— Thomas. H'lc/— George. While 
—Charles L., Mrs. Mary, Charles, Lousia. Il'e/c/i— John H., Mrs. Martha, 
Nathan. Jrn/Afc— Henry R., Mrs. Delia, Leander, Ada. Tl'i'/soii -Mrs. Eliza, 
Mark, Georgianan, Allierta, George. I oioi!/— Lewis. 

The "material resources" of the town, in June, IbGO, are set 
forth in the following table, taken from the census rolls of that j'ear: 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 535 

Acres of improved land, 1,082; value of farms, $34,500; value of farm imple- 
raenis and machinery, $2,013; number of horses, 30; milch cows, 81; working 
oxen, 30; other cattle, 88; sheep, 23; swine, 100; value of live stock, $7,015. 

ORGANIZATION. 

The town was organized, for civil purposes, in October, 1858. 
The organization has continued to this day. 

The township of Prescott was, at the time, included with Ver- 
ona, as it had been attached to the latter town for civil purposes, by 
the special commissioners. Prescott remained attached until Sep- 
tember 3d, 1861, when it was detached, or set off, by the board of 
county commissioners. 

The board of town officers, for the last year of this historical 
sketch, 1879, was composed of the following named persons: Su- 
pervisors, W. P. Spaulding, chairman, T. J. Williams and M. H. 
Linsley; town clerk, M. H. Oliver; assessor, H. M. Temple; treas- 
urer, C. B. Minor; justices of the peace, A. E. Seger, L. Dwight; 
constable, J. P. Bassett. 

VILLAGES. 

In 1856 certain persons designed to lay off a village site, either 
on the southeast of section eleven, or on the southwest of section 
twelve, but no decision was arrived at, and nothing further was ever 
done about it, yet, on the old territorial maps a village is indicated 
at, or near, the above locality, and which, on some of the maps, is 
named "Dewy," on others "Verona." A portion of the village of 
Winnebago City was built into this town, on section two, but the ter- 
ritory thus used was never platted into town lots, and does not form 
a regular addition to the village plat, but the lands are described by 
metes and bounds, as fractional parts of the quarter section. 

HUNTLEY. 

The village of Huntley, on the western boundary of the town' 
on section seven — a station on the C, M. & St. P. Railroad, was 
founded in August, 1879. It was at first designed to name the place 
Huntington, but, on inquiry, it was found that there were other 
places and postoffices of that name in the state, and so it was de- 
cided to cut the name short and call it Huntley. There are, how- 
ever, several localities and post-offices in, the United States of that 
name, but only this office in this state. 

INTERESTING INCIDENTS. 

At the time of the Ink-pe-du-ta massacre, in the spring of 1857, 
and again at the time of the Sioux massacre, in August, 1862, this 
town was almost completely depopulated, for a short time, and, al- 
though no attack was made on the people of the town, at either time, 
yet prudence dictated the abandonment of the town for the time be- 



536 lllSTOIiY OF 

ing. at least. The writer well remembers passing, with a small 
scouting party, twice through the town, west of the river, in August 
of that terrible year. 18()2, and observing the tine fields, the many 
stacks of grain and fields of corn, but the dwellings were deserted, 
and no human being was seen, and no stock, except one poor, lone 
calf, in a fence corner, quietly chewing his cud, Indians or no In- 
dians. 

The first marriage in the town was that of Chas. H. Slocum to 
Miss Mary E. Robertson, which occurred January 7, 1858, the Rev. 
J. W. Powell ofificiating at the tieing of this knot. It was a little re- 
markable that, at this wedding, which was a high-toned affair at that 
day, six of the company present were left-handed, but the host de- 
clared that he did not see but that the company had as great facility 
for disposing of provisions, when they came to the table, as any 
equal number of people he had ever seen. The first death which 
occurred in the town was that of a Miss Badger, and the first child 
born in the town was Elliot Mason, son of Allen D. Mason. 

We find the following reports in an old newspaper. It may be 
of some interest at this day: 

In 1860 there was raised in the towns of Verona and rrescott, then united, 
of wheat, .507 acres; oats, 198 acres: corn, 294 acres. In 1801 there was raised in 
the same towns, of wheat, 1,100 acres; of oats, 304 acres: of corn, 261 acres. The 
largest number of acres of wheal raised in said towns hy any one person, in 
1860, was 33. In 1861, Chas. L. White had .")7 acres wheat; James M. Robertson, 
54 acres; P. II. Allen had 53 acres and Chas. I). Itoberlson had 50 acres. 

There was. for some years, a post-ottice in the town, on the road from Win- 
nebago City to Blue Earth City It was known as the Verona post-otlice. For 
a long time it was kept at the house of H. T. Stoddard, and afterwards at T. 
J. Maxon's. It was discontinued some years ago. The post-otlice at Winne- 
bago City has always been convenient for the people of a large portion of the 
town. 

The people of this township suffered greatly by the grasshopper devasta- 
tions in 1873 and 1874, and quite a number of the inhabitants were compelled 
to leave the town to procure a living. In January, 1875, the town was can- 
vassed in order to ascertain the amount of loss by grasshoppers in 1874. We 
cannot give the estimates in figures, and it is sufficient to say that the destruc- 
tion was almost total. It was a grievous calamity. 

There are a number of valuable water-powers on the Blue Earth river in 
this town, two of which have been for some years improved, one furnishing the 
power for Verona Star Mills, on the west line of section twenty-four, the other 
for Rising Sun Mills, on the southwest (luarter of section eleven, lioth are 
good grist mills doing custom work. A kiln of 130,000 red bricks was make on 
section eleven of this tr)wn in 1879. 

The C. M. & St. Paul railroad was built in 1878, through this 
town from Winnebago City, in a southwesterly direction, giving the 
town a good market at Huntley. The C. M. St. P. & O. railroad 
was built in 1879, and passed through the northeast portion of the 
town. Another good railroad market is found at Winnebago City, 
where the latter road crosses the former. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 537 

This town, like most others in the county, voted liberal boun- 
ties to encourage enlistments in the military service, during the 
war of the rebellion, and paid the same in due time afterwards. 

To encourage the building of the Southern Minnesota Eailroad, 
now the C. M. & St. Paul, the town voted to grant to the company 
$15,000 in interest bearing bonds, but on application of some of the 
citizens, an injunction was subsequently issued, enjoining the of- 
ficers of the town from issuing the bonds, and they were never 
issued. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

The first school house in Verona was a small frame building, 
about 12x16 feet in size, and one story high. It was known as the 
"Forbes School House" and was built by contributions. It was 
erected in 1861, and was situated on section nine (9). There are now 
seven good school houses in the town and the people have always 
taken a large interest in educational aifairs. 

RELIGIOUS. 

Keligious societies were formed at a very early day in this 
town, the dates of which cannot now be given. There were several 
ministers of the gospel who resided in the town, at its first settle- 
ment, one of whom, the Rev. J. W. Powell, of the Methodist church, 
was always engaged in his master's work. 

HON. H. M. HUNTINGTON. 

Henry M. Huntington one of the early settlers and large land owners of the 
county, was born in Yates county, New York, in 1835. Henry grew to manhood 
on his father's farm. He attended the common schools and Starkey seminary 
in his youth. Soon after becoming of full age, he came west and in 1856 visited 
Iowa. In 1857 he came to Faribault county. Here he pre-empted 160 acres of 
land in Verona township, and proceeded to improve the same, and continued 
farming until 1862, when he enlisted in Company D, 6th Regiment Minnesota 
Volunteer Infantry, and served until September 1865, when he was mustered 
out. 

Mr. Huntington added much to his landed property during various years. 
After his military services he resumed his farming operations until 1879, when 
he returned to his old home in New York, and remained there until 1892, when he 
returned to this county, residing atWinnebagoCity. Mr. Huntington was formerly 
a republican in politics, but subsequently supported the democratic party. He 
has at various times filled local offices, and takes much interest in local affairs. 
In 1871 he was elected to the lower House of our State Legislature, and attended 
the ensuing session of 1892. 



538 HISTonV OF 

SOME STATISTICS. 

The papulation of the town in ISiiO was 268; in 180.'), 337; in 1870, 607: In 
1875, 547; and in 1880.562. 

The residents of this town are almost all Americans. 

Stock, etc., In 1879: Hor.ses, 274: cows, .353; other cattle, 603; mules, 4; 
sheep, 568; hogs, 40!t; wajfons and oarriaijes, 104; sewing macblDes, 32; organs, 6. 

Assessed value of real estate for same year $193,458 

Assessed value of personal estate for same year .30,701 

Total 8234,159 

Total tax assessed on said property, 84,688.81. 

The atiricultural products for the year 1879, as nearly as they can be esti- 
mated from the returns were: Wheat, 52,000 bushels; oats, 39,000 bushels; corn, 
.50,000 bushels; barley. 960 bushels; potatoes, 2,500 bushels: flaxseed, 456 bushels: 
.>iyrup, 2,600 gallons; apple trees urowing, 5,600. The returns were very meagre, 
and far from beinn reliable, as such returns very often are. 

The following list embraces the names of many persons, not already men- 
tioned in these pages, who were residents of the town prior to the close of 1879: 
J. A. Armstrong, W. W. Anderson, L. Benson, A. H. BuUis, M. Barth, J. M. 
Brown, W. Bursau, F. Bassett, S. Boyer, J. L. Bassett, C. Bursau, C. Brabender, 
¥. W. Cady, A. P. Collins, John Campbell, John Carpenter, T. J. Carpenter, M. 
Carpenter, A. H. Chase, W. C. Campbell, D. Christensen, G. W. Dibble, J. C. 
Daniels, L. Dwight, G. W. Doeg, C. Dimmick, J. J. Eygabroad, C. H. Foster, O. 
P. Foss. 11. N. Fiero, W. Fletcher, J. H. Gleason, C. Garlick, C. Goutermont, F. 
Hill, .S. Hawes, .S. H. Hall, J. G. HLimphrey, G. Huntington, R. V. Hesselgrave, 
J. F. Hill, T. Held, T. .7. Jones, C. Jones, U. Johnson. W. L. Johnson, P. La 
Duke, M. H. Linsley, W. Larou, C. S. Linslcy, F. F. Moore, A. P. McKinstry, J. 
1'. Miner, C. B. Miner, L. Moore, H. B. Mayson, F. Miner, M. W. Nelson, A. 
Oathoudt, M. H. Oliver, M.F. Oliver, W. H. Oliver, C. Oliver, W. W. Potter, 
C. Parks, J. H. Paschke, J. G. Pace, C. Ring, C. B. Rand, A. P. Sherman, W. P. 
Spaulding, A. E. Seger, M. .Schoolcraft, J. H. .Smith, H. J. Schoolcraft, J. 
Snencer, H. Sumner, N. T. Smith, H. M. Temple, A. A. Williams, Henry Wise, 
E. Wise, D. N. Wave, T. J. Williams. 

POLITICAL. 

The town of Verona was among the first of the towns to be set- 
tled, and for manj' years wa.s tlie third in population and wealth, and 
for many of the earlier years, it exercised an important influence in 
the politics of the county. Prior to the close of 1879, the town had 
furnished quite a number of members of tlie board of county com- 
missioners — Stoddard, Robertson, Dunham, Potter; a sherilf, Rob- 
ertson; acounty auditor. Cady; a judge of probate. Robertson; three 
county surveyors. Welch, Patten, Seely; and a member of the legis- 
lature, n. M. Huntington. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, BIINNESOTA. 539 



CHAPTER VII. 



PRESCOTT TOWNSHIP. 

The town of Prescott is congressional township one hundred and 
throe (.103) north, of range twenty-seven (27) west. As the surround- 
ings of a locality are a matter of much importance, it is well to 
observe that Prescott is bounded by the following townships: Dela- 
van on the north. Barber on the east. Blue Earth City township on 
the south, and Verona on the west. 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 

This township is almost entirely prairie. The surface of the 
country is slightly undulating, and easily drained. The elevation of 
Prescott above the level of the sea, is about eleven hundred feet. 
, The drift here, to bed-rock, is between one hundred and two hun- 
dred feet, but no wells have been sunk in the town to bed-rock, by 
which the depth of the drift may be determined to this date. The 
main stream of the Blue Earth river crosses a small portion of the 
southwest corner of the township. There are no other water 
courses in the town of importance, and no lakes. The only 
native timber in the town is confined to the line of the 
river, but the western line of the town, lying so near the 
river, which is well timbered, fuel has always been conven- 
iently obtained. Many of the older settlers of the town have owned 
small tracts of timber along the river, and the timber on the river 
has been almost as much benefit to a large portion of the people of 
this town, as though it had been located within its borders. There 
are many fine groves of forest trees in the town, containing from one 
to five, and some of ten acres, which have been grown by the resi- 
dents. Tn fact Prescott was one of the first towns in the county to 
be beautified and benefitted by artificial groves. 

THE NAME. 

The town received its name from the special commissioners, 
when they proceeded to name the towns of the county, in 1858. 
The name is a familiar one. There is both a county and a village 
named Prescott, in Ontario, Canada, and there have been several 
noted men of this name. Oliver and William Prescott were distin- 
guished patriots and soldiers of the revolution; a William Prescott 



540 inSTOHY OF 

was a famous lawyer of Boston, Mass. But the most noted of the 
name was William H. Prescott, the historian, a man known and hon- 
ored everywhere. There are, also, ten postoflfices of this name in 
the United States. But it is not in honor of any of these distin- 
guished men, or places, so far as the writer has been able to learn, 
that this town was named. The writer has been informed, by one 
of the special commissioners who named the town, that it was so 
named after a Mr. Prescott who resided in the town at the time it 
was named, but soon after left it. All that has been ascertained of him 
is. that he was a carpenter by trade, and that he was known by the 
name of "Old Honesty." But who he was, from whence ho came, 
whither he has gone, or how he fares, no one seems to know. 

FIRST SETTLEMENT. 

The first actual settler of Prescott, was Benjamin Graj', who 
took a ••claim" on section thirty-one, in the fall of 1855. He settled 
in this town on the twenty-fifth day of September, of that year. Mr. 
Gray, and family, came from Warren county, Penn. He was a car 
penter by trade. Some years ago, he removed to Yankton, S. D., 
where has since died. There were several claims taken prior to 
that of Mr. Gray's, but the parties did not permanently settle on 
them, until the next year. There were in this town quite a number 
of early settlers who resided here but a short time— only long 
enough to enter up their lands, some going away and never return- 
ing, others returning, after some time, and becoming permanent 
residents. The names of many of them do not appear on the census 
rolls of 1860. Among the earliest of such settlers, who proved up 
on lands in this town, prior to June, 1860, were: George Wirt, Al- 
bert Billings, Grover C. Burt. J. Ritchet. T. Hynes, D. Hynes, J. 
DeW. Smith. G. E. Gibbs, S. F. Morrison, G. K. Cleveland, H. J. 
Davlin, C. G. Wickershan, M. D. Madden, J. Marriner. Jr., D. W. 
Kingery, C. E. Trowbridge. E. Babcock, E. Bennett, J. Purness, P. 
Campbell, DeW. Paddock. J. Roberts. O. Dart. Jr., G. P. Wodell. G. 
S. Millard. P. G. Shinkle. J. Taylor. P. Wood. H. C. Hemanway. L. 
A. Crumb. G. Campbell, U. S. Karmany. W. M. Scott, J. T. Rod- 
gers. J. Koonze, B. Davis, G. Haller. J. A. Kincaid. L. Haller. 

The following list embraces the names of all persons found in 
the town in June, 1860. as appears from the census rolls, and the 
following table exhibits the possessions of the people and the im- 
provements at that time. 

(7r(i.v BcDJaruin. Mrs. .lulia, Josiah, BenjaniiD. Asenath, Julia, William. 
3/i7«.s— Georges., Mrs. Jane, Gertrude, Ella. ,S'/««>€«— Freeman A., Mrs. Cor- 
nelia, John. 

At this time when the census was taken, a number of persons 
who were holding claims in Prescott. were residing temporarily in 
Verona, and at Winnebago City 



FAIilBAVLT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 541 

Acres of land improved, 42; cash value of farms, S900: value of farming im- 
plements and machinery, $90; number of horses, 1: number of milch cows, 2; 
number of working oxen, 4; number of other cattle, 3; number of swine,3; value 
of live stock, $325. 

ORGANIZATION. 

The town was attached for civil purposes to the town of Verona 
by the special commissioners in 1858, and so remained until de- 
tached by the county commissioners, September 3d, 1861. 

The first election for town ofi&cers was called for September 
16th, 1861, at the house of Jonathan McDowell. The organization 
has continued through all the subsequent years. 

The town officers for 1878-9 were: Supervisors, A. Lent, 
chairman, and Jas. McCoUey and J. H. Wagner; town clerk, M. 
Perrizo; treasurer, S. M. Young; assessor, W. Viebahn; constable, 
D. W. Nichols. 

HISTORICAL INCIDENTS. 

The first school house erected in this town was built in 1863, 
and was known as the McDowell school house. 

There are now six school houses in the town in which schools 
are regularly kept. 

Bounties were given to encourage enlistments during the late 
war, and all promptly paid. 

No bonuses to aid in the construction of railroads have ever 
been voted. Several propositions to grant aid were voted down. 

The town has the benefit of a railroad mai-ket, at Delavan, near 
the northeast corner, and of another at Winnebago City, near the 
northwest corner, and at Blue Earth City, which is convenient to 
the southern portion of the town. The Chicago, St. Paul, Minne- 
apolis and Omaha railroad passes through the southwestern part of 
the town. No part of the town is over five miles from a railroad 
market. 

There was a Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry organized in 
this town, when that great institution was flourishing in this county. 

RELIGIOUS. 

As in all other parts of this county, religious services were held 
in this town at a very early day of its settlement, and various relig- 
ious denominations have long since been organized. There has, 
for many years, been a church building on the southeast quarter of 
section fifteen, erected by the Methodist Protestant society. 

FRANK W. TEMPLE. 

Mr. Temple, for many years a resident and large farmer of Prescott town- 
ship, was born in Williamstown, Mass., February 19th, 1840. His father was a 
farmer and Frank W. has also made that his principal life occupation. There 
were six sons and three daughters in his father's family. Mr. Temple's school- 



542 HISTOftV OF 

im: was receive during bis boyhood's years, id the very ^;oocl common schools of 
his native village. 

He came west to St. Paul, in April, 1857, and on the eiijrhth day of May, 
took up his residence in Chaska, Carver county, where he estahlished a hrick 
yard. While at that place he moulded, with his own hands, all the hrick in the 
court house of that county, built at that timi'. He remained in Carver county 
about two years, and then removed to Winona county, where he eni;aged quite 
extensively in farming. 

He was married in 1863, to Miss Cornelia Perry, of Olmstead county, Minn. 
They had two children who are now living, Charles E. and Mary B., now Mrs. .J. 
W. Kamrar, of Blue Earth City. Mrs. Temple died in 1874. 

In 1864, Mr. Temple sold out in Winona county, and in June, 1865, he came 
to this county and purchased considerable land, and since being here, he has 
been one of the largest farmers and sheep raisers in the county. He has, also, 
at times, engaged in the purchase and sale of stock. 

Mr. Temple has always been a republican in political sentiment. He was 
elected a member of the board of county commissioners, in 1874, and held that 
office almost continuously, until January, 1895, being most of the time chairman 
of the board. It was largely through the prudent management of Mr. Temple, 
that the county has secured one of the llnest court houses in the State without 
burdensome taxation, or contracting heavy indebtedness- When the structure 
was completed, it was practically, wholly paid for. 

In January, 1889, he was appointed by Gov. W. U. Merriam, a member of 
the board of slate prison managers, for three years, and was afterwards ap- 
pointed for the full term of five years. The position is one of much importance 
and responsibility. 

Up to the close of 1879, this town had furnished to the public 
service, in the office of county commissioner, Wm. M. Scott, F. W. 
Temple; register of deeds. Prank Lent; coroner, D. H. McDowell; 
county suryeyor, D. Birdsall. 

STATISTICAL. 

The population in 1800 was 14 persons; in 1865, 384; in 1870, 552: in 1875, 543; 
in 1880, 603. There has for some years been (juitc a settlement of French peo- 
ple in this town, but the majority of the inhatjitants are American born. 

By the assessors returns for 1879, there were in the town, of horses, 300; 
cows, 361; other cattle, 303; sheep, 1,305; hogs, 378; wagons and carriages, 83; 
sewing machines, 26. The assessed value of real estate for the same year was 
$182,356; personal estate, $26,487: total, $208,813. The total tax assessed on this 
property for 1879 was $2,729.79. 

There was returned, as produced in 1879 of wheat, 44,000 bushels; of oats 
51,000 bushels: of corn, 58,000 bushels; of barley, 4,500 bushels; of potatoes, 4,200 
bushels; of sorghum syrup, 1,000 gallons; of Max seed, 1.800 bushels; of wool, 
6,000 pounds; butter, 30.000 pounds. There were also 2,600 apple trees, of which 
800 were bearing. Number of acres cultivated, 7,000. 

Voici quelque faits historique qui interesserons-notre peuple Fran^ais et 
leurs descendants. 

Cela est bien raisonnable (luil ait beaucoup de residents de nationaIit<5 fran- 
caise dans ce pays. 

II y a cent ans, ou plus, que cette portion du Minnesota, faisant parti de I'em- 
pere de Louis quatorze, alors connu par le titre de "Grand Monarque de France," 
et 11 y a moins de cent ans, depuis que le grand Napoleon, Empereur des Fran- 
vais, etalt le souverain regnant sur cette region, et qui avec beaucoup de sa- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 543 

gesse et de prevoyance, ci'cla ce territoire aux Etats Unis, afln disait il, qu'il 
puisse au future sV-tablir dans cette hemisphere occindentale une puissance qui 
deviendrai VCgsXa et la ri vale de la grande Br<^tagne, parmi les nations du monde. 

Les premiers explorateurs, les premiers commergants, (traders) les premiers 
missionnairs de la croix au Minnesota etaient franqais. La premii-re place de 
traffic (trading post) dans la valK'e de la rlvitre Blue Earth fut C'tabli par le 
frangais Le Sueur. Le premier missionnaire qui mit le pied sur le sol de ce 
comt<^, de qui Ton a connaissance Cta.\t le Pf're Ravoux de Saint Paul, un fran- 
gais, qui pendant un voyage a une mission lointaine traversa ce comt*^, bien 
avant que I'homme blanc n'y eut C'tabli son habitation, et en dernier, celui de 
qui a comte porte le nom de Jean Baptiste Faribault ^tait un frangais, un 
homme desquel le nom et le souvenir peuvent Otre honore par toute le monde. 

Ce pays, pouvait avec raison avoir Ctd nommCe la Nouvellfr France, et le jour 
viendra quand le comt^ sera en richesse, en beaute et par I'intelligence et la 
prosperity' de ses habitants, le rival de n'importe quelle parti champOtre de la 
belle France avec ses colli nes de vignes. 

The following list contains the names of many persons who have resided 
in this town prior to the close of the year 1879. not already hereinbefore named: 
L. W. Brown, J. Bassett, Wm. Bassett, Ch. Bassett, P. Bassett, J. H. Black, 
Jas. Beard, O. J. Beard, A. Blunt, T. V. Brailhwait, O. Boiseclare, A. Butter- 
field, W. E. Cheney, W. O. Chestnut, J. Coulter, E. Clark, B. F. Clark, F. Cox, 
J. Davis, E. DeRusha, W. DeRusha, Elijah DeRusha. J. Dieter, H. Domes, P. 
Dolan, M. Dolan, O. Dolan, S. Edwards, C. Eberline, W. Eberline, E. Eberline, 
G. Freer, David Freer, R. Fierkey, A. Greisy, J. Galloway, C. Goyette, J. Goy- 
ette, G. Gibbs, P. Ilebert, R. Hacklander, A. Hacklander, T. Hynes, C. Hager, 
>E. Harding, H. Harding, H. O. Ives, J. B. Jones, E. Katzung, M. Kasulki, M. J. 
Kennedy, H. R. Keeler, J. Klawitter, C. Kube, Jacob Lent, Sam'l Lent, A. 
Lent, A. C. Lent, F. Lent, A. J. Lane, S. F. Lent, J. Leanny, D. H. McDowell, 
J. McDowell, C. Maxson, Wra. Mattin, H. Mattin, W. A. Miller, P. McCue, Jas. 
McColley, F. Mosher, R. Murray, H. Murray, C. Morehouse, L. Nichols, D. W. 
Nichols, L. Nurenberg, S. Noteman, O. S. Orr, A. Potter, W. D. Patten. M. 
Prescher, M. Perrizo, I^. Patten, B. Perrizo, J. Perrizo, G. Perrizo, C. Plochin- 
sky, W. Roberts, F. L. Spencer, J. M. Spencer, W. Spencer, F. Schultz, R. 
Schram, C. Sonnesac, N. B. Swartout, A. Swartout, B. E. Scott, A. Sweet, A. 
B. Sweet, C. Stroble, S. Shutteeworth, O. Tibedo. T. Tibedo, I. Tibedo, J. 
Terry, F. Trowbridge, W. Viebahn, J. H. Wagner, Henry R. Walker, L. C. 
Walker, A. Warren, G. F. Weiler, W. Wesley, O. B. Wheeler, P. Whitacker, A. 
Willett, Albert Willett, George Wirt, J. C. Woodruff, W. A. Woodruff, P. M. 
Young, E. C. Young, G. Young, D. N. Young, S. M. Young, S. Zutty. 



544 HISTORY OF 



CHAPTER VIII. 



15ARBER TOWNSHIP. 

Barber is congressional township one hundred and three (103) 
north, of range twenty-six (26) west. It is bounded on the north by 
Lura, on the east by Walnut Lake, on the south by Emerald and 
on the west by Prescott. The average elevation of this town, above 
the level of the sea, is about eleven hundred feet. The depth of the 
drift, to bed rock, is, in the northeast portion, about one hundred 
feet, and in other parts of the town, probably one hundred and fifty 
feet. It is a prairie town. Much of the land is quite rolling. A 
morainic belt, or tract of hillj\ or more or less rolling drift, of about 
three miles in width, extends from the east line through the to\vn, 
in a northwesterly direction. There are no running streams in this 
town, except some small brooks. A part of lake Ozatonka — a fine 
lake, about two miles long, by one and one half miles wide — is situ- 
ated in the town, on the south line, near the southeast corner. 
There is, also, a group of three small lakes near the center of the 
town, the largest of which is named Swan Lake, but which was 
at one time called Green lake. Another is named, on the old maps, 
"Kenty," but has now, probably, some other name. The third ap- 
pears not to be named. The native timber is about these lakes, 
and a part of it has been known, for many years, as "Wesner's 
Grove," an old land mark on the prairie. This immediate locality 
is the headquarters of the town. There was, at one time, a store 
and post-office here, and near by is the Roman Catholic Church of 
St. Mary, and parsonage and cemetery. There are, also, several 
dwelling houses. Mr. Wiesner kept here, for a number of years, a 
wayside inn, where the weary traveler might stop and "rest and re- 
fresh" himself and team. The building of the village of Easton, on 
the line of the railroad, only a few miles distant, interfered with 
the business and prospects of this locality. This town, like the 
others of this county, affords fine grain and pasturage lands. The 
people of Barber have also been quite industrious in setting out ar- 
tificial groves of forest trees, which now thickly dot over the town. 
The southeast corner of section thirty-three of this town is the geo- 
graphical center of the county. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 545 

THE NAME. 

The town was named Barber by the special commissioners in 
1858, in honor of Mr. Chauncey Barber, who was supposed at the time 
to be a resident of the town, but who, in fact resided in Minnesota Lake 
township. The reader is referred to the history of the latter town, 
for a more full account of Mr. Barber. 

THE SETTLEMENT. 

Andrew Woesner and John Blocher were the first actual set- 
tlers of Barber township. Mr. Woesner was born in Germany. He 
came to the United States in 1854, and located in Indiana. In June, 

1855, he removed to Illinois, and from thence to Winona county, 
Minnesota, and finally settled, about the thirteenth day of June, 1857, 
in this town. He is a blacksmith by trade, but has for many years 
been engaged in farming and stock raising. The land he settled 
upon was a part of the north half of section twenty-two (22). 

Mr. Blocher was also born in Germany. He came to the United 
States in 1853, and located in Ohio. From thence he removed, in 

1856, to Winona county in this State, where he fell in with Mr. 
Woesner, and came with him to this town. He is also a blacksmith 
by trade. He also took a claim on section twenty- two. 

The following list contains the names of all the residents of the 
town, in June, 1860, as they appear on the national census rolls of 
that year, and the table following shows something of their posses- 
sions at the time: 

Aadiman — John. ylsc/ima7(— Henry, Mrs. Christina, John. Lulz — Frank. 
S<ei'erme?-e — Barnard, Mrs. Henrietta, William, Mary, Henry, John, John. 
Tferfturrier— Henry, Mrs. Minnie, William. 

At the time of the taking of the above census, A. Woesner and 
family and John Blocher were residing in Blue Earth City. Mr. 
Woesner subsequently returned to the town, but Mr. Blocher did not. 
Acres of improved lands in I860, 40; value of farms, 1,200; value of farming 
implements and machinery, $170; number of milch cows, 5; number of working 
oxen, 4; number of other cattle, 7; number of swine, 5: value of live stock, 30.'3. 

It is not much to say that there are many individuals in the 
town to-day who, alone, have two or three times the aggregate value 
of all the above property, and a few much more. 

ORGANIZATION. 

Barber was attached to Walnut Lake township for civil pur- 
poses, by the special commissioners, in 1858, and was set off by the 
county commissioners May 27th, 1864. The first town election was 
held at the house of John Koonze, June 10th, 1864, and the town 
organized as a separate town. The town officers for the year 1878-9 
were Josephus Vial, chairman of supervisors; T. Trowbridge and 
J. Linder, side supervisors; town clerk, A. Scheid; treasurer, H. 



546 ni STORY OF 

Hassing; assessor. C. Horn; justice of the peace, Patrick Kelly; 
constable. H. Stevermere. 

HISTORICAL INCIDENTS. 

The first school house in this town was built in the spring of 
1863, on section fourteen. It was a small log building. There are 
now (1879) six substantial school houses in the town. 

A Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry was organized, in this 
town, July 'Jth, 1873, of which G. H. Brown was master, and T. C. 
Pond, secretary. It did good work, but long since ceased to exist. 

Ever since the building of the S. M. R. R. in 1870, the farmers 
of this town have had the benefit of two convenient railroad mar- 
kets, one at Easton, near the the northeast corner, and one at Del- 
avan. near the northwest corner. No part of the town is over eight 
miles from one or the other of these markets. 

Up to the close of 1879 this town had furnished to the public 
service, a representative in the lower House of the State legislature — 
Mr. Pond. 

RELIGIOUS. 

In the fall of 1803, St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, above re- 
ferred to, was erected on section fourteen. Subsequently a" parson- 
age was built near the place. There is a large and flourishing 
congregation of catholics here, and regular religious services are 
held. For some years a priest resided here, having charge of this 
and neighboring congregations, and this was the central locality, or 
seat of authority, foranumberof years of the church in this section of 
country. The building of churches and establishment of j^riests, in 
the surrounding villages, have lessened the importance of this lo- 
cality as a church center. Other religious societies have, also, had 
organizations in the town, for many years. 

The following schedule embraces the names of many persons, not already 
named, who were residt;nts of the town jjriur to the close of the year 1S79: J. 
Abraham, L. Anderson, ,T. Biu'ttler, 1'. Biirsaw, O. Urake, Jas. Hoylan. P. Cor- 
coran, G. Claude, L Claude, .1. Domes, C. Eiselt, C. Frank, A. Feist, R. Feist, 
S. A. Goodrich, P. GalTy, N. W, Galpin, M. Garlow, G. Garlow, A. Glcason, F. 
Horn, H. Ilarttiian, S. G. Hendricks, .J. Hassing, B. Hassing, A. Hill, G. J. 
Ilassing, Jos. IIas,sing, F. Iladlick, G. Ilasslng. Henry Ilassing, C. Horn, P. 
Kelly, M. Koegan, J. Koonze, Wm. Kinsley, H. Keiser, A. Kruger, J. Klucas, J. 
Lang, H. Lane, T. Lavelle, M. Lutz, C. Lutz, Caesar Lutz, F. Lutz, J. A. Lutz, 
Jacob Linder, E. Marsh, A. Meyer, L. Mesahl, C. J. Malado, G. Nagel, J. J. 
Pauley, W. I'ipke. T. G. Pond, J. Uothans, H. Rouenhorst, F. Roske, W. Roske. 
M. Ronan, W. D. RosUe, J. Kakow, J. C. Reynolds. W. .^teinlierg, .■<. M. Stover, 
H. Stevermere, II. Schroeder, R. .Spencer, J. Scheid, A, Scheid, P. .Sipple, Henry 
Schrocder, C.Thayer, T. Trowbridge, L. Tressler, A. Troska, E. Tressler, W. 
Terry, Josephus Vial, A. Werner, G. M. Wheeler, J. Wahl, A. Woesner, M. 
Whalen, C. Whilen, C. Weber. T. G. Young, F. N. Young. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 547 

SOME STATISTICS. 

The population of this town was, in 1860, enumerated with the people of 
Walnut Laife township, to which it was then attached, in 1865, there were 244 
inhabitants; in 1870, f)61; in 1875, G33, and in 1880, 647. 

A large majority of the inhabitants are German and Irish. 

It is learned from the assessor's returns for 1879, that there were owned in 
the town 351 horses, 405 cows, 422 other cattle, 4 mules, 695 sheep, 502 hogs, 29 
sewing machines. 

The assessed value of real property for that year was $164,439 

The assessed value of personal property for that year was 33,687 

Total $198,126 

Total tax assessed on same, $2,979.03. 

Products, etc., for the same year were estimated as follows: Wheat, 52,000 
bushels; oats, 42,000 bushels; corn, 32,000 bushels; barley, 900 bushels; potatoes, 
3,000 bushels; gallons of syrup, 2,400; flax seed, 1,300 bushels; wool, 2,800 pounds; 
butter, 8,000 pounds; honey, 132 pounds; apple trees growing, 3,000; total acre- 
age of plowed land, 6,500. 

Barber township is centrally located in the county, and has con- 
venient railroad markets and trading points, and is one of the most 
beautiful and fertile tracts of country to be found anywhere in the 
State. 



CHAPTER IX. 



WALNUT LAKE TOWNSHIP. 

This is congressional township, one hundred and three (103) 
north, of range twenty five, (25) west. It is bounded by the follow- 
ing towns: north by Minnesota Lake, east by Clark, south by Brush 
creek and west by Barber. 

PHYSICAL ASPECTS. 

This tract of land is described as high, rolling prairie, and is 
well adapted for all farming purposes. The average elevation of 
the town, above the level of the sea, is eleven hundred and twenty- 
five feet, but some of it is 1,150 feet and certain ridges north of Wal- 
nut Lake, 1,200 feet. 

A morainic belt — a tract of hilly or rolling drift, about three 
miles wide, extends across the town from the southeast corner in 
a northwest direction. The drift ranges in depth from one hundred 
to one hundred and seventy- tlve feet, probably above the bed-rock. 

There are no running streams worthy of note here. But a part 
of Walnut Lake is situated in this town, near the southeast corner. 
This is a very beautiful lake, and is about one and a half, by one and 
three- fourths of a mile in extent. Good well water is easily obtained. 



548 HISTORY OF 

What native timber there is in the township, is found on the banks 
of this lake, and several small nameless ponds or lakelets. 

This locality has for many years been quite a summer resort for 
fishing and boating parties, and for picnics and Fourth of July celebra- 
tions. In the early days it was also a favorite resort of the Indians, 
during the summer, especially the VVinnebagoes, whose '-teepes" 
were then often seen upon the banks of the lake. Here, as in other 
towns the settlers set out numerous groves, which have long since 
become small forests, and which give the town the appearance of a 
wooded country. 

THE NAME. 

The town derives its name from Walnut Lake, and was given to 
it by the special commissioners in 1858. The lake was so named 
because of the numerous walnut trees growing upon its shores. 
There are a dozen post-offices and villages in the United States 
named "Walnut," as many by the name of "Walnut Grove," and as 
many by the name of "Walnut Hill," but only one by the name of 
"Walnut Lake." The Indian name of Walnut Lake was Te-zu ka. 

FIRST SETTLEMENT. 

Daniel James Ackerman took up a claim on section thirty-five, 
on the 7th day of June, 1856, and "proved up" on the same August 
7th, 1856, and was undoubtedly the fii'st actual settler of this town. 
He came into the country with Mr. Abraham Ackerman, his 
brother, who settled at the same time at Kice Lake, in Foster town- 
ship. There was a man, however, named White, who, it was said, 
located somewhere on the lake in 185.'). But ho left the country 
soon after, and never returned. Some further remarks in refer- 
ence to Mr. White will be found in the history of the year 1855. 

Dr. R. R. Foster was one of the earliest settlers of this town. 
He located here in the summer of 1856, but Ackerman had then, he 
says, taken his claim. A fuller notice of Dr. Foster will be found 
in the history of Foster township. 

The following named persons were residents of the town at a 
very early day, and "proved up" on lands therein prior to 1860, but 
their names do not appear on the census rolls of that year: Robert 
Steward, Herbert Robinson, Barton Robinson, John H Brown. John 
Colman. The following is a list of the inhabitants of the town in 
June, 1860, according to the national census, taken that year. 

iJurnci/— James. Ciisic — Francis, Mrs. Mary, .lane, Thomas, Rosa. Duffy— 
Barnard, James, Catharine, Mary. J^osffr— Horatio, Mrs. .Sarah, Aurelia, Ida. 
(Dr. Foster and wife were residents of Blue Eartli City at tlie time of the cen- 
sus, and hence their names do not appear here.) Gn'n»oWs— John, Mrs. Laura, 
George, Frank. JTaiiJiH— Michael, Mrs. Mary, Catharine, Julia, Sarah. Mem-y - 
Lorenzo, Mrs. Julia, Edwin, John, Julia. LaFitte, William. IFi/cox— Absalom, 
Mrs. Margaret. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 549 

This table exhibits the wealth of the town at the time of the 
census of 1860. 

Acres of improved lands, 90; value ot farms, $2,800; value of farming imple- 
ments and machinery, $230; number of horses, 5: milch cows, 7; working oxen, 
2; other cattle, 4: swioe, 7: value of live stocl\, $775. 

ORGANIZATION. 

The towns of Lura and Barber were attached to Walnut Lake 
township, for civil purposes, by the special commissioners, in 1858, 
and the first town meeting was called for October 20th, 1858, for 
the election of town officers, but no meeting was held. In fact, much 
difficulty was experienced in getting organized. We find, by certain 
records, that on May 30th, 1859, there were no town officers, and 
the county board appointed L. Merry, chairman; M. Hanlin and H. 
Harrington, supervisors; John Chase, town clerk; O. C. Healy, as- 
sessor; H. Welch and John Brown, justices, and O. C. Healy, col- 
lector. Some of these persons resided in Lura. They all failed to 
qualify, and on the sixteenth of June, 1860, there were still no offi- 
cers, and the county board appointed John Aschman, chairman; H.. 
Poster, supervisor; L. Merry, treasurer; B. Duffy, assessor. But 
it seems that these last appointments failed also, and on June 24th, 
1861, the county board appointed A. Wilcox, chairman; A. Woesner 
and M. Hanlin, supervisors; R. Poster, town clerk; H. Turherner, 
assessor; A. Wilcox, justice of the peace, and R. Poster, constable. 
Some of the above appointees were residents of Barber. The town 
of Lura had then been set off, which event occurred March 5th, I860, 
and Cobb township now Clark, was on the same day attached to 
Walnut Lake township by the county commissioners. By the same 
authority, Barber was detached from Walnut Lake, May 27th, 1864, 
and Clark was detached September 7th, 1869, and became a separate 
town. 

The roster of town officers, for the closing year of this sketch, 
was composed of the following named gentlemen: Supervisors, 
Wm. Zimmerman, chairman, C E. Pord and G. C. Sheldon; town 
clerk, W. R. Haskins; assessor; C. S. Bates; treasurer, C. B. Wes- 
ton; justices of the peace, M. M. Sheldon and H. Copley; constable 
C. Zimmerman. 

INTERESTING INCIDENTS. 

At a very early day certain persons proceeded to survey and 
lay off a town site on the lake shore, and a plat of the village site 
was made and sent to the register of deeds of the county for record, 
as required by law, but the plat not being duly executed and certi- 
fied, was returned to the proprietoi's for correction, and has never 
been heard from since. The project was evidently abandoned. This 
village was named "Marengo." 



550 HISTORY OF 

On October 22d, 1863, occurrod the Crapau homicide, an account of which 
will be found in the history of that year. Along about the years 1864 to 1868, 
quite a hamlet grew upon section 27, which became the headquarters of the 
town and a center of business. There were here, at the time, several hotels, a 
post-otllce, school liouse, several stores, blacksmith shop and several dwellings. 
The hotels were patmni/ed, mainly, by persons travi-ling the country in iiuest 
of lands. The trade came from the surrounding country, and reached even to 
the Cobb river and to Clayton, in Seely, and into the towns of liarber and Em- 
erald. No grounds were, indeed, laid off into lots, and the locality was not 
formally named, liut it was known from the name of the post-offlce, as Walnut 
Lake. But the place has long since ceased to be a trading point, and the men 
of that period, interested in the l)usinessot the locality, as Louis Sherman, Dr. 
Fellows, L. Merry, W. Robinson, Geo. Newcomb, II. P. Edwards and Lewis and 
Cottrell, and others, are no longer residents of the town, and the few remain- 
ing structures are occupied as dwellings. 

Since 1870 this town has had convenient railroad markets at 
Wells and Easton. 

The town has contributed to the public civil service, two county 
commissioners. L. Merry and W. J. Robinson, and a county auditor, 
W. W. White, the latter having held the office for many terms. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

The first school house was erected on section 27, in 1865. The 
first school taught in the town, was kept in a small frame house be- 
longing to Joel Underwood, on the banks of the lake, in the summer 
of 1864, and Miss Eliza Underwood, it is said, taught the first school. 
There are now (1879) seven substantial school houses in the town, 
and the district schools are regularly kept and well attended. 

RELIGIOUS. 

The Baptists organized a church society here, it is reported, in 
1864, or about that year. Other religious denominations were also 
early represented here, and Sunday schools instituted. 

STATISTICAL. 

The population of the town in 1860 was 46, including Cobb (now 
Clark) and Barber. In 1865 there were 283 inhabitants, including 
Cobb. In 1870 the number was 500 in this town alone, and in 1875, 
376. At the latter date many had left the town. In 1880 there were 
487. The cause of the decrease of population from 1870 to 1875, a 
loss which was not regained even up to 1880, was hard times and 
financial distress. 

The heavy hand of the usurer rested, for many years, on much 
of this town, and large mortgages, drawing heavy interest, drained 
the town of moneys which should have been used in improvements, 
and the energies of the people were withered, and many of them left 
the town, and many once fruitful fields became thickets of weeds. 
One could point in almost any direction and say "there is a mort- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 551 

gage wreck." Thus speaks a number of the most honored residents 
of the town. But the town will at no distant day, become one of the 
most populous and wealthy. 

The assessor's returns for 1879 present the folic wing summary 
of personal property : 

Horses, 279; cows, 323; other cattle, 427; mules, 11; sheep, 566; hogs, 204; 
wagons and carriages, 63; organs, 5. 

Assessed value of real estate, 1879 $140,697 

Assessed value of personal estate, 1879 21,567 

Total $162,264 

Total tax assessed on said property for the same year was $2,643.62. 
Agricultural products, etc., for 1879, were estimated as follows: Wheat, 
27,000 bushels: oats, .32,000 bushels; corn, 18,000 bushels; barley, 2,700 bushels; 
potatoes, 2,200 bushels; flax seed, 1,500 bushels: butter, 26,000 pounds; wool. 3,000 
pounds; apple trees growing, 2,000: trees hearing, 700; honey, 150 pounds; sor- 
ghum syrup, 1,100 gallons; total number of acres of cultivated land, 4,300. 

Among the persons who have resided in this town, prior to the 
close of 1879, wliose names are not mentioned in the census roll of 
1860, there were the following: 

A. Adams, J. D. Ackerman, J. M. Baker, H. W. Babcock, C. S. Bates, Pat- 
rick Coughlin, H. Copley, J. W. M. Cook, D. Cook, E. R. Cook, A. B. Chase, C. 

A. Cottrell, M. Duffy, J. Dutfy. .Tas. Duffy, J. W. Daniels, J. P.Damp, S.L.Ducan, 
C. Damp, H. P. Edwards, A. M. Eldred, L.O'Farrell, L. D. Fay, T. O'Farrell, W. 
Ford, F. W. Ford, C E. Ford, G. B. Grinnells, W. Haight, B. Harper, M. F. 
Higgins, W. E. Haskins, D. Herring, S. D. Hober, M. O. Hallock, J. D. Holmes, 
James Kelley, J. Kleine, J. Kelley, W. Kelley, S. Kelley, C. Kelsey, G. Kewes,W. 
Kewes, L.K.Lock, Wm.Laws, H. Laws, P. O'Leary, J. Lamphire, L. F. Loomis, F. 

B. Loomis, W. A. Loomis, P. Morse, Thomas Mullen, John Mullen, J. Mullen, 
J. Mathews, B. Maricle, T. Mathews, G. Morgan, A. Odell, O. Odell, N. Odell, 
Robt. Parks, T. Roundhorst, E. Ryel, L Russell, O. B. Robbins, J. Shaw, W. H. 
Scott, M. Shaw, O. C. Sheldon, M. M. Sheldon, O. Shepardson, A. Shepardson, 
A.A.Simpson, G. Scott, P. H. Spillany, T. Shimmen, W.Thompson, A.Thomp- 
son, N. A. Thompson, J. Underwood, W. B. Underwood, R. P. Yroman, J. 
Whites, O. Wait, C. B. Weston, H. Wing, V. Wing, W. W. White, M. White, S. 
H. Wing, S. F. Welker, J. Weleer, C. S. Weston, Patrick Whalan, C. Zimmer- 
man, O. Zimmerman, W. Zimmerman. 



551' HlSToliV OF 



CJIAITEK X. 



CLARK TOWNSHIP. 

This town is designated on the maps of the United States sur- 
veys, as town one hundred and three (103) north, of ranfje twenty- 
four (24) west. Its surroundings are as follows: On the north is 
Dunbar, east is the town of Carlston, in Freeborn county, south is 
the township of Poster, and west is Walnut Lalte township. 

The average elevation of the town above sea level is 1,170 feet, 
the depth of drift to bed-rock is about 110 to 120 feet, and the bed 
rock is grey sandstone. The surface of this town has a slightly 
undulating, or often nearly flat surface, but with some slight eleva- 
tions in the southwest corner. There are a good many shallow de- 
pressions or sloughs, from five to fifteen feet lower than the gen- 
eral surface, the descent being by long slopes. There is one small 
stream, or water course, which is near the south line of the town, 
and is named Foster creek. There are also several small slough 
runs, or rivulets. This is a prairie township, there being no native 
timber whatever, in the town, but the residents are, every year, 
setting but trees in the village, and groves in the country, many of 
which have already reached a large growth. 

The soil is black, deep, rich and productive, growing the most 
nutritious grasses, and is better adapted, perhaps, to grazing, than 
grain raising, though the amount of grain raised here averages 
about the same as that in many other towns, according to the acre- 
age cultivated. Should the improbable event ever occur, that the 
lands in other parts of this county should become arid or worn out. 
it may reasonably be expected that most of the lands in Clark town- 
ship will still be productive. Good water is easily obtained by dig- 
ging or boring, and there are in this town many artesian, or flowing 
wells, especially in the village of Wells. These flowing wells, or 
fountains, are obtained in any part of the town, and are very valu- 
able. The water is verj* good. These wells are usually' two inches 
in diameter, and from 100 to 160 feet in depth. There are some in- 
dications from these flowing wells and some of their discharges and 
other considerations, that the locality embracing a part of this town 
and perhaps Dunbar, and other adjoining territory, has a subter- 




CLAKK \V. THOMPSON. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 553 

ranean lake or lakes of some miles in extent, and which lie at a 
varying depth of perhaps of 125 to 160 feet beneath the surface. 

THE NAME. 

This town was named Cobb by the special commissioners in 
1858, they supposing that the Cobb river ran through the town. 
This was a mistake however. On September 7th, 1869, the name of 
the town was changed by the county commissioners to Thompson, 
but it appearing that there was another town in the state of this 
name, the commissioners on the twenty-fourth day of March, 1870, 
gave it the name of Clark. It was named Clark, and previously 
Thompson, in honor of Clark W. Thompson, the original proprie- 
tor of the village site of Wells, and the largest land owner of the 
town and county. 

CLARK W. TnOMPSON. 

Clark W. Thompson was born on the twenty-third day of July, 1825. He 
removed with his father to Rockford, III., in 1839, and went to California in 
1849, where he remained until 1853. In the latter year, he returned to the 
"States," and settled at Hokah, Houston county, Minn., where he at once took 
a prominent part in political and business affairs. Here he built a (louring 
mill. 

He was married to Miss Rebecca Wells. The fruits of the marriajje were 
four sons. He was a member of the 6th Territorial Legislature— 1855— and of the 
Territorial Council in 1856 and 1857, and a member of the Constitutional Con- 
vention in 1857. He was a presidential elector on the republican ticket of 1860. 

In 1861 he was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs in the northwest, 
which office he held until 1865, when he resigned it to take charge of the cpn- 
struction of the Southern Minnesota Railroad, and became president and gen- 
eral manager for some years. The great work of building this road is to be 
credited, largely, to Mr. Thompson. He was a member of the State Senate in 
1871, from this county, and was president of the State Agricultural Society at 
one time. 

There are many other references to Mr. Thompson in this history. He died 
in the year 1885. 

It is not inappropriate to add here, that the name of Clark is 
one of distinction. Thei-e are five counties of the name in the United 
States, and there have been many noted men of this name in Amer- 
ica and Europe, and by the addition of the letter e, to the name, the 
list of counties and of distinguished persons, of this name, is greatly 
extended. There are also many villages and post-offices of the name 
of Clark, and Clarke, in the United States. 

FIRST SETTLEMENT. 

From the best information obtainable, it appears that one Alfred 
Holland, was the first settler of Clark township. He located upon 
the northeast quarter of section one (1), in June, 1862. Mr. Holland 
was an Englishman by birth. He enlisted in the military service of 
the United States in 1863, and served until the close of the war, in 
1865. He subsequently sold out and removed to Nevada. 



554 niSTOIlY OF 

The next settler was James Glendening, a Scotchman, who took 
a claim in July. 1862. He left the county during the Indian excite- 
ment, which occurred soon after. 

The next person, who located here, was Augustus Powers, who 
selected a claim in the winter of 18G2-3, and commenced permanent 
improvements, in building and breaking up the sod, in the spring of 
1863, and to him, in fact, belongs the honor of being the first per- 
manent settler. He remained, while the others, after but a short 
stay, left the town. 

Zachariah Lovell was another of the early settlers. He made a 
claim during the summer of 1863. C. R. Lord selected lands in the 
town in June, 1863, and brought in his family in the fall. Simeon 
Moirill also took a claim in 1863, and brought in his family the fol- 
lowing year. Henry Johnston was one of the first settlei-s of the 
town. In July, 1864, he settled upon the lands formerly held 
by Glendening. And here, while referring to those who were 
among the first settlers of the town, or interested in it, it 
should be stated that the iiublic lands in range twenty-four, in this 
county, came into market at an early day, that is, it could be pur- 
chased from the government, without settlement or residence upon 
it. In all the ranges west of twenty-four, in this county, to obtain 
lands from the government, residence upon them and certain im- 
provements were necessary, under either the preemption or the 
homestead laws, except certain tracts granted to the State for rail- 
road and other purposes. And there may be found, among those 
who either settled in the town, or had purchased lands therein prior 
to July, 1865, the names of G. H. Sell, C Kendall, G. Bouse, J. Bat- 
tles, Jr.. A. L. Richardson. W. S. Keel. W. Dammau. D. B. Smith, 
S. Cusick. M. A. Smith. W. McCuUough. T. Cartwright. H. G. Ab- 
bott. W. Snyder. J. Sawyer, M. McGarme. J. C. Easton, G. M. Bar- 
nard. J. Moyer. T. Pond, but especially Clark W. Thompson, who 
purchased of the general government, in this town, over nine thous- 
and acres, which is the largest body of laud ever owned in this 
county, by one individual. 

ORGANIZATION. 

This town was attached to Marples (now Minnesota Lake) for 
civil purposes, by the special commissioners, in 1858, and on Mai'ch 
5th, 1860, was detached from Marples and attached to Walnut Lake 
township, by the county commissioners, and so remained until Sept. 
7th. 1869. when, by the same authoritj', it was detached from Wal- 
nut Lake township and organized as a separate town. The organ- 
ization has continued from that time. The township officers, in 1879, 
the closing year of this sketch, were as follows: Supervisors. M. 
J. Myers, chairman. J. Penny and H. Giibertson; town clerk. F. B. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 555 

Southwick; assessor, E. S. Leavitt; treasurer. Dr. Daniel Straw, 
justices of the peace, W. B. Dunn and F. E. "Watson; constable, Wm. 
Billings. 

INTERESTING INCIDENTS. 

The first school house was erected in the fall of 1867. It is upon 
the southeast quarter of section 27, and is a substantial frame build- 
ing, twenty by twenty-four feet in size, and cost about $800. 

The first school in the town was taught by Miss Mary Thomas, 
in a temporary building, erected on the site of the new house above 
mentioned. 

For many years there has been a very fine graded school at 
Wells, in this town, and there are now in the township four substan- 
tial school houses. The interest manifested in education, has al- 
ways been very commendable. 

The first marriage, so far as we have been able to learn, solemn- 
ized in this town, was that of Henry Randall to Miss Jane Gilmore, 
March 12th, 1868, and the ceremony was performed by C. R. Lord, 
justice of the peace. 

The following account of a very sad incident is taken from the 
Wells Advocate of May 8th, 1890. 

IN EARLY DAYS 

"Three soldiers were frozen to death in a blizzard which swept over this 
part of the country during the winter of 1864, and their bodies were not found 
until spring. When found one was identified as the body of Mr. Daramas, of 
Minnesota Lake, and the others as the remains of two comrades named Price, 
who accompanied him to his home In this county on a furlough. They were on 
their way from Minnesota Lake to visit a friend living west of this village when 
overtaken by the storm. The body of Deramas was taken to Minnesota Lake 
for burial, but his comrades, being strangers, their remains were interred on 
the spot where they were found, which is near Mr. Wm. Laws' farm about two 
miles west of town. Trees were afterwards set out to mark their graves, but 
about two years ago they were cut down by some person unknown. The mem- • 
bers of Ransom Post, G. A. R., have been interesting themselves in these lonely 
graves, which would soon become obliterated, and have decided to remove the 
remains to lots in the cemetery in this village, and began the work of disinter- 
ring the bodies this morning. This action of the Post is very commendable, as 
the members have no interest in the fate of the graves of the deceased, other 
than that of common humanity. ' 

WELLS. 

The village of Wells, situate on section nine (9), in this town- 
ship, was laid off in July, 1869. It appears, however, from the fol- 
lowing statement, taken from the Free Homestead, of July 7th, 1869, 
and which is valuable for several facts, that it was the original de- 
sign to locate this village on section five (5). 



556 HISTORY OF 

THE NEW TOWN IN KAUlIiAULT COUNTY. 

"On the first flay of July, 1869, a few 'pioneers* rode out to the southeast 
Muarter of softion 5, town 103, ranjre 24. and staked out one hundred and sixty 
^cres as a town site. There was Ijare prairie, nothing more: hut the town must 
have a name. The hat was passed, H. W. Holley, of Winneliago City, M. Co- 
nant, of La Crosse, and all others present, voting, eycept Thompson, general 
manager, who thought It was hard to be debarred from a voice in naming hu' 
otrn town. The result of the ballot was WELL.S, and alludes to the maiden 
name of Mrs. Clark W. Thompson. 

Last Tuesday Mr. C. C. Cottrell, of Walnut Lake, put up the first building 
in this embryo town, and within three inonlhs there will he upim that ijuarter 
section of prairie, a town rivaling any other in the county. Such is life in the 
West." 

The following very spirited and interesting account of the early 
days of Wells, is taken from the Wells Advocate, of December 20th, 
1877. 

"The first invaders and settlers of the sacred soil, whereupon the village of 
Wells now stands, were Col. C. W. Thompson, Capt. J. 0. Day, C. L. Chase, J. 
P. Burke, Frank Hall, H. W. Holley and M. Conant. After considerable mean- 
dering about over a large extent of prairie and swamp land, they finally found 
the spot that has became since so conspicuous in the annals of history and the 
minds of men."' 

"It was toward the close of a bright June day, in 1869, that the above men- 
tioned party stuck their stakes and reared the first covering over our green 
sward, built the first fire, cooked the first beefsteak, and scared away the cranes 
for the first time since the noble red men sojourned toward the setting sun. It 
was a happy family that slept that first night upon the spot that was soon to 
be made memorable for great achievements. At this lime the town site was 
laid out (upon paper) and many conjectures, as to its future growth, were in- 
dulged in. All their plans were rose-colored and fraught with the highest 
hopes. The second visit of these gentlemen, accampanied by others, to this 
new city, was made about a month later, when the town site was transferred 
from paper to the reality, and the erection of permanent buildings was com- 
menced. Here the trials and difflculties of these pioneers began. The railroad 
was forty miles distant. Tlie nearest point for lumber was Owatonna, and the 
only mode of transit was by teams, which, with innumerable sloughs and un- 
bridged streams to cross, made it conspicuously expensive, as well as discour- 
aging. But, like the martyrs of old, they knew not discouragement or defeat, 
and time, the great alleviator, brought their arduous and ditlicult duties to a 
t<'rminus, and success over every oljslacle crowned their labors with glory, as 
they witnessed the first frame building rise up, phu'nix-like in the midst of the 
boundless prairie. Capt. J. C. Day occupied the first building, as a general 
store, that same fall, and many amusing incidents are connected with that 
building, in its early day. The half dozen old stagers that were here, made it 
a daily practice to ascend to the roof and ga/.e long and earnestly across the sea 
<if level prairie to catch the first glimpse of a passing traveler. After days of 
anxious watching, one of the party discovered a small black speck against the 
horizon, apparently approaching them, and when the object came near enough 
for discernment, and they discovered it to be a women on horseback, trepida- 
tion seized the entire party, and an appalling scene occurred, for the poi^r fellows 
had not seen a women for many a week, and, all being bashful by nature, it re- 
(luired the best of generalship tn induce any of them to assist the heroic lady 
from her horse. This was the first house and the first customer; but the tide 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 557 

of emigration had begun to flow into the new Eldorado, and new l)uildings 
began to dot the laid out lots, and a general scene of activity began to be ob- 
served.'' 

"In the month of September, of the same year, we had quite a rush of set- 
tlers, who were willing to accept of all the discomforts appertaining to the 
establishing of a new town, upon a boundless, treeless and uninhabited prairie. 
Where the Wells Ifouse now stands, water then stood nearly three feet deep, 
and required the active services of men, night and day, to keep the raging tor- 
rent from completely submerging the basement." 

"The Wells House waserected in the winter of '69, also the store building of 
Robert Andrews and H. A. Parks. The spring of 1870 came, and new enter- 
prizes were started. Burke endeavored to start a brick yard, and while on his 
way to Austin, to get his material, he met Capt. Day, with a load of goods for 
his new store, completely stalled, in a little ravine, near where Alden stands, 
and unable to extricate himself. The ravine was then filled with a rushing 
stream of water, about three feet deep and forty rods wide, which the Captain 
was rather dilatory aljout crossing, except in his wagon. But the precarious- 
ness of the situation soon became apparent, when the Captain shouldered his 
chest and gently lowered himself into the water, waded ashore. The chilly 
winds howled dismally around his nether parts until they were nearly para- 
lyzed with cold, and Burke was obliged to swing the end board of the wagon in 
close proximity to the Captain's chilly parts, to bring back a renewal of life. 
The Captain was three days getting through from Austin. O. D. Hall left 
Austin with four teams, loaded with household goods, and was four days on 
his journey, and finally came into Wells with fourteen teams, hauling what 
four teams started with at first." 

"We had but little sickness in our midst, and those who were unfortunate, 
laid their claims upon the cooking of Q. J. Adams, who was only a natural born 
citizen, and did not fully understand the modus operandi of always making 
bread that wouldn't stick to a fellow's teeth: but in general, Adams made good 
bread. Daniel Carpenter was our physician, and his great experience and knowl- 
edge of medicine saved us many times from borrowing a spade to dig a neigh- 
bor's last resting place." 

Wells was the first railroad town in this county, and for a time 
its growth was very rapid. It was in January. 1870, that the South- 
ern Minnesota Railroad was completed to Wells, and the first train 
of cars reached the village. For a year following it was the rail- 
road grain market of the county. Some years after ( 1874) the Min- 
nesota Central Railroad, running from Mankato to Wells, was com- 
pleted, and afterwards became a branch of the Southern Minnesota 
Railroad. This branch gives the village important connections. 
Wells has. from the first, been much indebted to the public spirit 
and energy of Mr. Thompson, who, at an early day, secured the 
location here of the railroad machine shops, and finally, for a time, 
the general offices of the company. Other great enterprises of Mr. 
Thompson were the erection of an immense cheese factory, one of 
the best in the United States, subsequently changed to a creamery. 
During subsequent years, he also erected a barrel factory, the bar- 
rels being manufactured by an invention of his own. He erected a 
vinegar factory, at an expense of forty thousand dollars, which was 



558 HISTOItY OF 

in operation when destroyed by fire. And not least of his enter- 
prises was the breaking up. in 1871. of many hundreds of acres of 
land, near the village, and the erection of some twenty brick farm 
houses and barns thereon, which farms he let out. stocked with cows. 
A newspaper named The Prairie Bugle (democratic), purporting 
to be issued at Wells in August and September, 1869. started out 
with a great demonstration, but it was really printed, half in Mil- 
waukee and half in Austin. Minn., and soon failed. On or about 
the 20th day of January, 1870, the first issue of the Wdls Atlas ap- 
peared, being the first newspaper really printed and published in 
the village. A newspaper has been published at this place during 
most of the past years, a full history of which will be found in the 
various years of the general history of the county. 

The village was first incorporated by act approved March 6th, 
1871. as "The Village of Wells," and embraced the following terri- 
tory: The south half of section four and the north half of section 
nine. Mr. J. K. Brown was the first village president. Many 
amendments to this original act have been made, from time to time, 
which are noted in the legislative history of the county. Of an early 
school teacher in Wells, a writer in the Adcocate says: 

"Alsip's brick yard furnished us with a school teacher, called "Dixie," Chas. 
Dixon, who had a peculiar way of dismissing his pupils, by lirst filling his inch 
and a-half clay pipe, and standing roady with a match in one hand, and while 
slowly drawing it across liis kneo, would sing out, "Attention, grub time, giti" 

It is stated that this teacher, having no great reverence for re- 
ligious ceremonies, frequently opened his school by singing the 
famous classic song known as "Paddy and the Bear." 

Miss Abby Parks was the first regular school teacher of the 
village. The first village school house, a frame building, was erected 
in 1870. 

As to the early hotels, it appears that Q J. Adams, erected, in 
August, 1869, a frame building to be used as a hotel. As Mrs. 
Adams had not yet arrived when he opened his hotel, Mr. Adams 
himself did the housework for some time. Two hotels were erected 
in 1871, the Wells House and the American House. 

The first child born in the village was Wells Lounsberry, son of 
the editor of the Atlas. He was born in Peburary, 1870. 

George Keeler, Esq., was the first lawyer to locate in the vil- 
lage. He subsequently removed to Montana, where he died. 

The first bank in Wells was established in 1873, by J. C. Easton, 
of Chatfield, Minn. 

RELIGIOUS AND OTHER SOCIETIES. 

The first sermon delivered in the village of Wells, was preached 
by the Rev. R. B. Abbott, of Albert Lea, Minn., on the evening of 
the first day of April, 1870. Quite a large audience was in atten- 
dance, and the sermon was a deeply interesting one. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 559 

The same writer for the Advocate, further says: 

"Up to 1871 no church spires were observed iu our town. Services were held 
in passenger coaches and private houses. Albert Lea supplied us with min- 
isters." 

Before the closing year of this sketch, 1879. several religious 
denominations had organized societies and Sunday schools, and sev- 
eral church buildings had been erected. The Episcopal church was 
erected in 1874, during the rectorship of the Rev. Burleson. Within 
the same period, also, Doric Lodge, No. 89, A. F. A. M., Mechanics 
Lodge, No. 19, L O. of O. F., and Rescue Lodge, No. 66, I. O. of G. 
T., and "Wells Lodge, No. 39, A. O. U. W., had been instituted. 

This township, since the founding of Wells, and up to the close 
of 1879, has furnished a number of public officers. Robt. Andrews 
was several times county commissioner, and as state senators we 
have had C. W. Thompson and J. P. West, and as representative, J. 
P. West several terms. Of our county attorneys, two, to this date, 
have been from this town, M. W. Green several terms, and M. S. 
Wilkinson. And as county surveyor, E. S. Leavitt, a number of 
terms. 

HON. 3. p. WEST. 

Mr. West was born in Waterbury, Vermont, in 1839. He received an aca- 
demic education, studied law, and was admitted to the bar at twenty-one years 
of age. In 1861 he emigrated to Wisconsin, and settled at Wausau, where he 
practiced his profession for ten years. He was district attorney of Marathon 
county, Wis., two terms, and postmaster of Wausau, three years. He came 
to Minnesota in 1871, and located at Wells, where he engaged In the practice of 
the law and other business. 

Mr. West held various local offices during his residence in Wells, and was for 
a time editor of the local newspaper. He was elected to the State Legislature, 
lower House, in 1873, and again in 1874, and to the State Senate in 1875, and was 
again elected to the lower House in 1877 and in 1878. He was subsequently ap- 
pointed Deputy State Examiner, and removed to Hastings. Mr. West is a 
republican in politics. 

STATISTICAL. 

The population of this township, in 1870, was 347, this being 
the first census of the town taken after it had become a separate and 
independent township organization. In 1875 the population was 
623, and in 1880, 892, including the village of Wells at both enumera- 
tions. The following statistics are taken from the assessor's returns 
for the year 1879, and include projjerty in the village of Wells. 

Horses, 178; cows, .357; other cattle, 115; mules, 9; sheep, 62; hogs, 83; 
wagons and carriages, 74; sewing machines, 61; organs, 19; assessed value of 
real estate for same year, $230,675; personal, $43,011; total, $273,686. Total tax 
assessed on said property for 1879, $10,368.79; Products, etc., for 1879— wheat, 
10,000 bu.; oats, i;{,000 bu.; corn, 6,000 bu.; potatoes. 1,300 bu.; gallons syrup, 
900; apples trees growing, 117; wool, 730 lbs.; butter, 37,000 lbs.; cheese, 4,000 
lbs ; total acreage cultivated, 2,100. 

But there were many residents of this township, prior to the close of 1879, 
whose names have not yet been mentioned. Here are many of them: RoVit. 



560 HISTOHY <>F 

Anflri-ws, C. N. Andrews, Wm. Allen, E. Anthony, h. W. Allen, J. Anderson, 
.1. Adamson. H. D. Habcock, E. A. Baldwin, G. A. Harm-s, Sr.. G. A. Harnes.Jr., 
C. H. BilllnKM, W. H. Barron, J. S. Brewstfr, H. BlodKott, N. D. Barrows, J. P. 
Burk, J. W. Banc's, J. E. Bunnell, U. VV. Carlllfk. M. V. Carlwright, G. M. 
Chapman, W. Clark, G. C. Campbell. W. E. Crosby, E. Cole, S. Calkins, W.J. 
Crandall, B. Chase, .lohn Klmore, J. Elmore, A. F. Eckenbreck, A. Eaton, C. 
Elliot, C. O. Esse, C. W. Elliot, A. Fay. T. S. Fellows, G. W. Fellows, J. A. 
Flinn, L. Fay, M. W. Green, E. Gallop, O. A. Gilbert, G. A. Gilbert, C. Guyen, 
H. Gilbertson, J. M. Hober, J. A. Hall, R. Huston. H Ilais'umen, M. Hanlin, P. 
Hagen, II. G. Haugan, A. D. Hall, E. R. Johnson, J.W. Kelley, E. U. Little, C. 
R. Lord, C. A. Lounsberry, S. C. Leland, M. N. Leland, H. J. Merriman, J. W. 
Merrinian, J. D. Morris, S. Merrill, M. J. Myers, J. Mengelt, J. M. Nye, J. Olson, 
W.T. Ogden, M. Olson, L. L. Olson. J. W. Polleys, J. Penny, Jas. Penny, C. 
W. Porter, A. Pratt, H. A. Park, J. Perrine, A. M. Roberts, D. Reed, W. F. 
Randolph, F. B. Robbins, E. D. Rogers, O. F. Southwick. F. A. Smith, A. Shil- 
len, C. .Seibert, Basil Smout, S. S. Sutton, G. W. Slade, B. F. Smith, S. A. 
Smith, J. R. Smith, J. Shrader, F. Shrader, M. Saxon, J. S. Stearns, Dr. Daniel 
Straw, A. P. Thombs, A. L. Taylor. C. L. Taylor, W. B. Wood, T. W. Woodard, 
W. W. Woodard, N. Wise. W. H. Wells, C. F. Wise, F. E. Watson, M. S. Wilk- 
inson, J. P. West, H. A. Wells. 



CHAPTER Xr. 



FOSTER TOWNSHIP. 

LOCATION. 

This township embraces that portion of the territory of Fari- 
bault county, which is described in the government surveys as town 
one hundred and two (102) north, of range twenty-four (24) west. 

It is bounded on the north by Clark township, on the east by 
the township of Alden, in Freeborn county, on the south by Kiester 
township, and on the west by the township of Brush Creek. 

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION. 

The average elevation of the town, above the level of the sea- 
is about twelve hundred feet, but there is one point on the south 
line of the town which is about thirteen hundred feet. The drift 
here is from 110 to 150 feet, probably, in depth to bedrock. A 
morainic belt of "boldly rolling hillsof from fifty feet to seventy -five 
feet high, extend from section 28 to the north and northwest, by 
Rice Lake, where they occupy a width from one-half to one mile on 
each side of the lake," and thence tend northwest to west and north 
line of the town. The general surface of the land may be desig- 
nated as rolling prairie, and affoi'ds a fair proportion of hay, pas- 
turage and tillable lands. The soil is deep and fertile. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 561 

There are several small streams, one named Joaes' Creek, and 
several slough runs in the town, which are the heads of the east 
branch of the Blue Earth river. There is also a very beautiful lake 
in the town known as Rice Lake, which is about a mile and a half 
long, and half a mile wide. What native timber there is in the town 
is found on the margin of this lake, and some of it is very good. 
This vicinity was in times long gone by, a great resort of the In- 
dians for hunting, fishing and gathering wild rice, which grain once 
grew in abundance here. There is a wild Indian legend of love and 
abduction, romantic and tragic, connected with this lake, but we 
have not the space to record it here. 

The people of this town have not been indifferent to the import- 
ance of setting out groves of forest trees, many of which are found 
in the town. And here it should not be forgotten, that there are in 
this town some fifteen very find living springs, and that water, pure 
and good, is easily found by digging, or boring, in any part of the 
town. 

FIRST SETTLEMENT. 

The first settlers of this township were Abraham Ackerman 
and J. O. Jones, who located in the town June 7th, 1856. Mr. Acker- 
man settled upon the N i of SE i and S i of NE \ of section eight. 
Mr. Jones took a claim on the same section. Ackerman said that 
their principal occupation during the summer was killing mosqui- 
toes and muskrats. 

Daniel J. Ackerman came into the country at the same time, but 
took a claim in Walnut Lake township. 

The Messrs. Ackerman and Jones, were, originally, residents of 
the state of Illinois. They removed from that state to Iowa, where 
they remained a short time and then came to Minnesota. 

Abraham Ackerman was for many years one of the most promi- 
nent and enterprising men of the town. He was married, and had 
four children. He became the owner of much land, and made many 
valuable improvements. He died in 18S2. Daniel J. Ackerman died 
in December, 1864. 

The following list copied fi'om the census rolls, of tha national 
census, taken in June, 1860, exhibits the names of all persons re- 
siding in the town at that time. 

Ackerman — Abraham, Mrs. Elmira, James. (The names of Abraham, and 
his wife, do not appear on the census roll, as they were temporarily absent at 
the time.) Burmester — Henry, Mrs. Eliza, Henry. Dowytes— William, Mrs. 
Lorancy, Martha, William, Laura. GoM;/— Stephen. JfiHer— Henry, Jr., Mrs. 
Mary, Henry. Miller— Reary, St., Mrs. Laura, John, Frederick. <S'eaton— L. C, 
Mrs. Mary, Wallace, Frank. iriZcci;— James, Mrs. Susanna, James, Louisa. 
TFai«er--William. 



562 HISTOIIY OF 

THE NAME. 

This town was named Poster, by the special commissioners, ia 
1858, in honor of Dr. Reuben R. Poster, one of the earliest settlers 
of the county, but never a resident of this town. 

Dr. Foster was born in .lellerson county, state of New York, in 1808. He 
removed, with his parents, in 1815, to the city of Bangor, state of Maine. In 
1831 he was married, and soon after commenced the study of medicine. In 1846 
he emiRratefl to Janesville, Wisconsin, and from thence, in 1848, to Rocicford, 
Illinois. During these years he was extensively engaged in the sale of drugs 
and in the practice of medicine. From Rockford he removed to Monona, Iowa, 
and from thence, in 1856, to Walnut Lake townsliip, in tliis county. His de- 
sign was to quit the practice of medicine and go largely into the business of 
stock raising, for which his new location afforded great facilities, l)ut meeting 
with some severe losses, lie removed, in the spring of 1858, to Blue Earth City, 
in this county, where he resided for some nine or ten years, busily engaged 
in the practice of medicine. He was the first resident i)hysician of the village. 
The doctor holds one of those dressed sheep skins, which physicans, more than 
all other professional men. seem to covet, on which is inscribed, in medical 
Latin, a certificate of proficiency, and is known by the name of diploma. 

He removed from Blue Earth City to Jackson, Minn., in 18G9, and from 
thence to Heron Lake, Minn., and, in 1876, returned to his old home in Blue 
Earth City, to spend the last years of an active and eventful life. After resid- 
ing at Blue Earth City for some years, he removed to St. Paul, where he since 
died. 

It may be well to note here, incidentally, that there are six or 
eight post-offices in the United States, and a county in Dakota, 
named Foster. There have also been several quite distinguished 
men of this name, notably. Bishop Poster, of the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, in the United States. 

ORGANIZATION. 

This town was attached by the special commissioners in 1858, 
to Brush Creek township, for civil purposes, and was set off by the 
county commissioners on the sixth day of September, 1864. An 
election for town officers was held September 24th, 1864, at the house 
of A. Ackerman, when the town commenced its career as a separate 
and independent township. 

The several town offices were filled in 1879, the last year of this 
sketch, by the following persons: Supervisors, A. Ackerman, chair- 
man, H. Steinhau.«r and G. Martin; town clerk, J. H. Burmester; 
treasurer. P. Miller; assessor, W. O. Payne; justices of the peace, 
C. S. Dunbar and A. Joyner; constables, A. Robinson and W. Reich- 
enberg. 

ITEMS OF INTEREST. 

The headquarters of the town, so to speak, is on Rice Lake, 
where there is a post office named Banks, a store, hotel, blacksmith 
shop, school house and several dwellings. This hamlet has been 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 563 

known by the name of "Banks," "Rice Lake," "Paynsburg," after 
Mr. Fayne, the landlord of the place. 

The first school house erected in Poster was built in May, 1863, 
on section eight. It was a log building. 

There are now (1879) four substantial school houses in the town, 
and the schools here average well with those in other towns of the 
county. 

Religious services were held here at an early day. The Evan- 
gelical Association has a very strong congregation in this town, 
and a church building at Banks. 

The railroad markets of this town are at Wells and Alden. 

This town has furnished to the public service a county commis- 
sioner, L. C. Seaton ; and a representative in the State Legislature, 
C. S. Dunbar, prior to the close of this history, 1879. 

HON. C. S. DUNBAR. 

Mr. Dunbar is a native of New York. He was born May 16, 1831, at Seneca, 
Ontario county. He came West with his father in 1846, to Rocl< county, Wis- 
consin. He remained in Wisconsin until 1850, when he went to Calit'ornia, 
where he remained four years. He then returned to his home in Wisconsin, 
and was married, in 1854, to Miss Helen M. Thomas. They have had ten chil- 
dren. He came to Freeborn county, Minnesota, in 1858. In 1861 he became a 
resident of this county, locating in Foster township, where he has ever 
since lived, engaged in farming. In 1863 he enlisted in Company K, Second 
Minne.sota Cavalry, and served until May, 1866, when he was honorably dis- 
charged and returned home. He held various local offices, among which was 
that of justice of the peace, which he has held since 1868. He was elected a 
member of the lower House of the State legislature, in 1875, and served in the 
Centennial session of 1876. His political views are in harmony with the prin- 
ciples of the republican party. 

SOME STATISTICS. 

The population of the town was 28, in 1860; 166 in 1865; 304 in 1870; 346 in 
1875; and 425 in 1880. A large proportion of the residents are German. 

From the assessor's returns in 1879, it appears that there were in the town, 
horses, 239; cows, 306; other cattle, 347; mules, 3; sheep, 333; hogs, 222; 
wagons and carriages, 71; sewing machines, 17; organs, 5. 

Assessed value of real estate for 1879, $152,081; personal, $27,896; total, $179,- 
977; total tax assessed on said property, $2,562.86. 

Agricultural products, etc., for same year: wheat, 34,000 bushels; oats, 24,- 
000 bushels; corn, 25,000 bushels; barley, 1,900 bushels; potatoes, 3,000 bushels; 
syrup, 600 gals.; flaxseed, 400 bushels; apple trees, growing, 1,200; wool, 1,200 
lbs; butter, 14,000 lbs; cheese. 15,00. 

Number of acres of improved land, 3,900. 



6W HISTORY OF 

9f}B« le^arHk raf Otef^i^i^cft, nm tvmn gioln ftUfic ■afcnl SelfeS 9(T(4tt«< 
bit wiOttSt^xn. )■ Uffn^ (ellK betgefugt ■crben. bic bo* SatnUab — .Xnufi:|l«at' — 
M* %a fn^ 3ett ufcm 4kfd^i4te aU Katira, tauM befentntrB Ontiag tai4 (NiigM> 
tioa. iM »ic |n»CTttnf«Bbc (i|lini»e SnriAn. |« VafuMiag Smcnla* geltcfm. Uat. 
ciac Inge (M«4nuA. ui ^- ta U^nuwoL fo»oM »« «f Stact 

■■» Smauii, Mt gde^it, »«6 ^jcr Katwaoi. fi^ vuf^ntoc^ttn et> 

ivUfei ^t ia bei tb^ftctaBg wan «kgra»ca ate gftobe Mefc bcffere filaffc Ma Scatf^^ 
eoao^l al« ?aign bn Ktf4ie»«aea Z«»afi^t9§, a\i aa^ 3a^iieT liaMi^er Siitiaftc 

Zard)»«g, rr^ifltni tufc £«ate, hae \m»v etafa^e, btaaoi^ gate S<4aUaBaag. 
Xt««»<m barf i^rc Bttnebfamtnt, il^r Jln^ ai^t aatenV^t locrbea. 

9«niR, t^t @«i)OTiaai. im Scfoljni bet £aabc»4kf(|e. 3^ce octaaoaiif^e; fyaf 
faau, e^rlidK Hrt. aiat. 

■ad ob<a gnaai^tca flagakea nflact fidy beaa aa4 i^re 9a#baa(r eiagcretMet me 
fU oft rrfolgreul) fixb, felbt bo. ido 2eato aabetct Katiaaea, (getegeatlu^) bte ^Itate xni 
8ara saifea, aab basoa liefea. 3<>'<"' iMrtn n: bari^aM^ fc^ batt ammtaainct. 

%ti bratf^c SiflBeat. aiit Staif^^t oaf giamo^anio^l tai staate niaaefoto. if — 
groB — 7^>a4(>4 gTVBff tnia iTg;ab etoe oibere, etaLjelae geaonaieae, aailiabtitbn 9ti' 
noa. Sie marea nater 6» ent» Saftiblrra buiel SoaaiiK, Bob fie mie i^ce Hi'i^loi.mn' 
f(^aft, bilben eta bebeateabrS X^nl iljrer Smvo^aei, fovit Dargec 

SBii tidfen fie aater nafera bodift eaergifi^ca, gebei^'.iiifen fomie mo^l^abcabea ^r- 
neia biefer SaabiJiatt. £o4 aai^ atdft atiaber erfolgteti^ aaf beni gef^iftu^ca 0efeiete 
ta Stdfiteo aob Xorfern. 

34re titd)'-ul>e, moral aa) foctjl: Crj3ii7a;i03e3. tmbaatta, abcrrajea ia 

Sa^lea nhe am fB<rtl| aOe aaberea, eia^ela ba'ti^^a^ea z- . : ftacverf^iftea. 

t\t eift: Sii4e la bteiem (Eoaotg, mar 3a^ S:r! Der X^atii^.'x Xa$ tljaea ba^ei 
geba^reabe X^il ber S^re barf nab ioI:e nid): gefc^aaleii merbea, bafie (rdfttg mtt^ilfea, 
aafet Somitq $0 bcm ^n madKn toil e# ge^ensartig tft 

Xer Serfaffrr biefer fln^ibea. leajaet ;Dic ni^:, felbfi beatf^it Sbfaaft ja feia, 
beaao4 fteljen bie Xrage anf ualeujbare Xbitia^ia be^ruabet. 

Jeraer fet ^ler betner!:, i2% £iir;tb;r 5:efe Sajabeo. aal ^b^i^maj gejea bie 
Xentidjen uob al? e:nft, bee iljrea S:r!b ali €a:j<c biefM Siabij erfeaat, gegeaubec bea 
Sagliid) reienlen X^ilr^, atebei geid)rieb;s !)aL 

Xiefei X^eil nnferer 9ef4id)te. m besijalb u bcntfc^er Spcai^ gebractt, feamit er Doa 
ben gnren altea bentfd^en Surgem, in t^rer treffli^en jRntteriocac^ geleiea BKtben tans. 

The following list embraces the names of manv persons, who 
were residents of this town prior to the close of 1~79. most of whom 
have not already been mentioned: 

S. Acken, P. Butler, E D. br.>ok'-. Henry Birmeiter, J. L. Bliss, H. C. 
Ruendorf. Ileorj- Baeodorf, M Butler. Wm Billings. C. B. Billings, C. S. 
Courtwright. D. C. Cady, C .S. Duoba'. A. Dinsmore. W. Dinsmore, J. M. 
Drake. B. F. Drake, W. H. Fish, G. Ganes. J. Guber, W. Heitzig. M. Heinou- 
sky, H. A. House, F. Hage, G. Hanks, Oliver W Jones, N. E. Joyner, A. Joyner, 
O. Kinney. B. Lischesske. W. T. Lyon, Geo. Martin. H. W. G. Meyer, Dewey 
McKinster, D. D. McKiost^r, H. Miller, W. F. Mason, F. Morris, Joseph Morris, 
J. Meyer. D.C. Meyers. Fred Miller. S. Nelson. Wm. O. Payne, J. Parser, br., 
August Passer. J. Passer. Jr., C. Quantz, W. Eeconburgh, C. Keconbu gh, A. F. 
Robinson, J. Rouike, A. Rusho, N. B. Schow, F. Schow. H. G. St«inhour, J. 
Shrquin, H. St*ckleburg, H. St^inhour, L. C. .Seaton. G. W. Strong. C. .Sauers, 
A. C. Thomas. H. W. Thomas, R. D. Taylor, L. Whipple, J. A.Waldreff, A. 
Waldreff. A. A. Williams. Albert Williams, Wm. Walter, A. White. C. A. 
Wicks, C. Yonkie. 



FARIBAULT COUXTY, MINNESOTA. 565 



CHAPTJER XIL 



BRUSH CREEK TOWNSHIP. 

The town bearing the above name, is congressional township 
one hundred and two (102) north, of range twenty-five (25) west. 
It is bounded on the north by the town of Walnut Lake, on the east 
is Foster township, south is the town of Seely.and west is the town- 
ship of Emerald. 

The estimated average height of this town above sea level is 
1,125 feet. The depth of the drift to bed-rock has not been ascer- 
tained in this town, but it is probably that of the surrounding coun- 
try, varying from 100 to 150 feet. The surface of the land is roll- 
ing prairie, easily drained. On section twenty-three are certain 
short "ridges, and round, or conical knolls, steep sided, about 
twenty feet high, composed of coarse gravel and sand, and form a 
series, three-fourths of a mile long." 

Nearly half of Walnut lake, one of the most beautiful sheets of 
water in the county, is in this town, near the northeast corner. 
There are. also, two other small lakes in the town, known as Swan 
Lake and Goose Lake. The east branch of the Blue Earth river runs 
from the northeast corner, in a southerly and southwesterly direc- 
tion through the town, and a small stream, known as Brush Creek, 
enters the town about a mile from the southeast corner and empties 
into the Blue Earth river. 

There is considerable native timber in the town, which is con- 
fined to the banks of the lakes and the river. Many fine groves of 
forest trees, the result of the labor and foresight of the people, 
are scattered throughout the town. The soil is deep and fertile — 
the wild grasses luxuriant and nutritious. 

Such a fine tract of land should have attracted settlers at an 
early day, and such was the fact. 

FIRST SETTLEMENT. 

James Prior was the first permanent settler of this town. He 
located on the southeast quarter of section thirty-three, on the 
twenty-sixth day of May, 1856. Mr. Prior was born in 1814, in Eng- 
land, and came to the United States in 1850, and stopped for awhile 
in Massachusetts. In April, 1854, he emigrated to Miama county, 



566 iiistohy of 

Ohio, but the country not being healthy, he returned to Massachu- 
setts in November following. In 1855. he emigrated to Iowa, and 
from thence to this town at the time above stated. 

He has always been a farmer by occupation. Since living here, 
and at an early day, he was twice burned out of house and home and 
household goods. Both fires occurred within one year, and both 
were undoubtedly the work of an incendiary. For a number of .years 
he acted as town treasurer. He was married July Gth, 18G9, to Mrs. 
Fannie M. Whitney. He died in 1887. 

The following list embi*aces the names of all the residents of 
the town in June, 1860, and is taken from the census rolls of that 
year. 

i^/efc7ter— Charles, Mrs. Mary, Clara, Amanda, Mary, Castara, lletiecca. 
3fi()-rrt(/— Win. Mull(>r\j—Dik\\i\. jNVk'oii— Ole. O/csoii— Nels, Mrs. Mary, Peter. 
Prior— James. Phillips— Vim. D., Mrs. Faustina, Harriet, DeWitt, Alice. Ray- 
mond— L\\c\\\& S., Mrs. Melissa. . JiK^j— Sam'l L., Mrs. Maria, Abl)y, David, 
Elizabeth. Whilmy-'L. J., Mrs. Fanny, Marian, Arthur, Eugene. 

The following table, made up from the census reports of 1860, 
shows the possessions of the people at that time, in the aggregate: 

Acres of land, improved, 222: value of farms $6,900; value of farm Imple- 
nients and machinery, $558: number of horses, 10: railch cows, 26; working 
cattle, 24; other cattle, 36: swine, 55; value of live stock, S2, 107. 

THE NAME. 

The town was named Brush Creek by the special commissioners 
in 1858, after the small stream of that name in the town, and the 
stream received this name because of the thick growth of small 
trees, thickets and brush along its banks. The name is not a com- 
mon one, yet there are some six or eight post-offices and villages in 
the United States, bearing the name of Brush Creek. 

ORGANIZATION. 

The township of Foster was attached to this town for civil pur- 
poses, by the special commissioners, in 1858, and an election for 
town officers was noticed to be held on the twentieth day of October, 
1858. 

It appears from the county records, that on the sixth of March, 
1860, the county commissioners consolidated into one town district, 
the two town districts of Brush Creek and Foster, and Seely and 
Kiester, for town purposes. The town of Foster was detached from 
Brush Creek township by the county commissioners, September Gth 
1664. In separating these towns, the strange circumstance hap 
pened, that Brush Creek, the principal town, became disorganized 
as all the officers of the town district resided at the time, in Foster 
the attached, or ancillary town, and the commissioners, therefore 
ordered an election for town officers to be held at the house of Lu 
cius S. Raymond, on the twenty-fifth day of October, 1864. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 567 

The board of town officers for the year 1878-9, was composed of 
the following named persons: Supervisors, Geo. Thompson, chair- 
man, H. Johnson and G. Susher; town clerk, C. EUert; treasui-er, 
J. Amundson; assessor, J. Emerson; justices of the peace, John 
Emerson and C. Ellert; constable, J. D. Seely. 

ITEMS OP INTEREST. 

About the years 1863-4-5, a locality of some importance grew 
up on section one, where one, Milton Morey had a saw mill in the 
timber on the banks of Walnut lake. He had also a small store 
here, which did quite a business, being patronized by the people of 
the surrounding country for many miles. 

There was a post-ofifice established in this town, on section 25, 
and named Alton. 

Military bounty bonds were voted during the war, to encourage 
enlistments, and were afterwards duly paid. 

About the year 1869, Charles Fletcher erected a small grist mill 
(water power), on the Blue Earth, on section 33. The mill was sub- 
sequently purchased by Hiram Raymond, and greatly im^Droved, and 
for some time did a good business, but Avas finally abandoned. 

This town has furnished to the public service a county commis- 
sioner, S. L. Rugg, in the early years of the county. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

Schools were held in the town as early as 1861, but it was sev- 
eral years before a school house was erected. There are now (1879) 
three very good school houses in this town, and schools are regularly 
kept. 

RELIGIOUS. 

Public religious services were held here soon after the first set- 
tlement, the people assembling in private houses for some years, 
' until the erection of school houses. It appears that the Baptists 
were the first to have regular services. Other religious denomina- 
tions have held services here also, especially the Lutherans. 

STATISTICAL. 

The population in the town in 1860 was, in tact, .31, though reported 48. In 
1865 there were 223 souls, in 1870, 422; in 187.5, 541; in 1880, 525. 

A large majority of the inhabitants are Norwegians. 

The assessor's reports for 1879, show that there were In the town at that 
time, 268 horses, 425 cows, 501 other cattle, 5 mules, 474 sheep, 196 hogs, 14 sew- 
ing machines, etc. 

The assessed value of real property was $118,334; personal, $23,440; total, 
$141,774. Total tax levied thereon was $1,799.67. 

Of products for 1879 there was reported, wheat, 99,000 bushels; oats, 125,000 
bushels; corn, 37,000 bushels: barley, 50(1 bushels; potatoes, 800 bushels, syrup, 
400 gallons; apple trees growing, 109; wool, 3,900 pounds; butter, 4,800 pounds. 

The total acreage cultivated is reported at over 12,000. 

There are evidently some errors in the above statements, as to the amount 
of products and acreage, but they are given as they are found. 



568 HISTORY OF 

We should have but an imperfect idea of the importance of this 
town, without a statement of the names of a number more of the 
people who were residents of the town prior to the close of this 
sketch, and helped in the work of building up the town. Here are 
some of them. 

H. Alson, Ole Anderson, O. C. Anderson, L. Anderson, Geo. Armstroni;, 
Jeff Amundson, Pat Boyle, E. J. Bahcock, W. Babcock, A. Bergsetter, C. F. 
Bassett, Thos. Brown. Gustav Biischo, J. Conrad, C. Cheffy, A. Clementson, M. 
Chrlstopcrson, F. Cret'iT, II. Clino, E. .S. Dahl, .1. Dickens, Wm. Elrrikson, O. O. 
Eldojjuard, W. E. Everett, Cha.s. Ellert, John Emerson, P. Entfelbri^lhson, E. 
Francis, B. Francis, I. Francis, G. Gilbertson, 11. Gutormson, S. Gilliertson, O. 
Hollman, G. Hondrickson, Nils Hanson, H. Ilaverson, C. Haul, I. Iverson, H. 
H.Johnson, A. Johnson, P.Johnson, V. Johnson, Hans Johnson, J. M. Jones, 
Jas. Jones, O. Johnson, L. O. Legrid,T. H. Legrid, M. Lange, A. H. Lathrop, 
S. Lange, A. Larson. T. Larson, Thos. Lewis, L. Merrii, S. E. Merrit, M. 
M. Monson, N. S. Marklebust, S. T. Natvig, P. Nilson, J. J. Northness, 
C. Karveson, E. Nelson, Jas. Noakes, J. E. Odden, S. E. Odden, H. Olson, 
H. L. Olson, G. Olson, T. Pederson, Reginald Pedcrson, E. Pederson, O. 
Pederson, P. Pace, J. Pankonin. James Prior, F. Badinan, M. Radiuan, J. W. 
Robinson, L. H. Robinson, L. S. Raymond, N. Slockkelbo, J. D. Heely, J. J. 
Saben, O. O. Svangster, N. L. Satre, J. .Schultz, J. Sbjurson, F. W. Sibel, L. 
.Sohn, II. Sohn, Geo. Thompson, B. Thompson, J. Thompson, P. Thompson, J. 
Tellefson,S. E. Voldahl, L. J. Whitney, A. Whitney, E. Whitney, E. Wolf, H- 
A. Waldruff, Arz. Yocum. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 569 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE TOWNSHIP OP EMERALD. 

The town having the appropriate name written above, is bounded 
on the north by the township of Barber, on the east by Brush Creels 
township, on the south, not by tlie ancient city of Rome, but by 
Rome township, and on the west by Blue Earth City township. On 
the government surveys this town is numbered one hundred and two 
(102) north, of range twenty-six (26) west. 

The surface of the land is properly described as quite undulating 
prairie and natural meadows. The town is drained by the east branch 
of the Blue Earth river, which enters the town near the southeast 
corner, and passes through it, quUe centrally, running in a north- 
west and westerly direction, and by a small stream, which is the 
outlet of the lake and several slough runs. Lake Ozahtonka, one of 
the largest and most attractive lakes in the county, lies mainly in 
this town, on the north boundary, A number of valuable springs of 
cool, clear water, are also found here, and good water is easily to 
be had by digging or boring in any part of the town. 

The soil is deep, dark-coloi-ed and productive. The average 
elevation of the town is about 1,125 feet above sea level. The 
depth of the drift is unascertained as yet, but is doubtless that of 
the county generally, probably exceeding one hundred feet. 

There is considerable native timber in the town, which is found 
along the river bottoms and the margin of the lake. Many "artifi- 
cial" groves of forest trees, set out by the i-esidents of the town, 
give the town a wooded aspect, and adds much to the beauty of the 
landscape. 

The reader is now invited to pass from this description of lo- 
cation and physical characteristics of the town, to a brief setting 
forth of what is known of its history. 

In relation to the first settlements made here, we present the 
substance of a letter, received from Ezra M. Ellis, for many years 
a prominent resident of the town. He says: "I moved into the town 
on the first day of June, 1857. John Cook, and two sons, Henry 
Weber, Charles Castle and one Jones, were then settled in the town. 
Jones was at that time, however, away from home. Either Cook or 
Jones was the first settler, but I never learned which one." 



570 HISTOltY OF 

Henry Weber, above named, George Mittlesdorf, Fred Mittles- 
dorf and Herman Priester located in the town in June, 1856, and 
Mr. Weber says that John Cook was then, and for some time previ- 
ous, had been settled here. Prom the above, and other information 
in regard to the matter, Mr. Cook is doubtless entitled to be deemed 
the first permanent settler of this township. He left the town, how- 
ever, many years ago. but whither he has gone, who he was, or from 
whence he came, the writer has been unable to learn. 

Looking further for the names of the early settlers of the town, 
we turn to the rolls of the census, taken in June, 1860, and find the 
following list of residents, at that time: 

ylmundson— Erick, Mrs. Agaata, Ann, Aniiuond, Ivor. Anderson— G\sX,. Cook 
— John. CooA-— George. £n-icA-,so«— Lars, i'/fe— Ezra M., Mrs. Lyclla, Henry, 
Edwin. Elva, Ezra, William, George, Elizal)eth. Fomira— Wra., Mrs. Louisa, 
AuKUSt, Julius, Augusta. (5 n;//in— Julius, Mrs. Mary, Julius, Lucius, Harriet, 
Lydia. Gilberliirm—OW, Mrs. Gertrude, Gilbert, Ole. /o/m.w/i— Flans, Mrs. Em- 
bric, John, Christie, Knut, Gertrude, John, Mons. JS'iiuf-voii— Christopher, Mrs. 
Agaata. Lar.son— IlenryE , Mrs. Hetsy, Eriel{,01e. Lodicic— Henry, Mrs. Signe, 
Christie, Alexander, Lodwic. J/j^/ctdor;/'— Fred, Mrs. Dora, Bertha, George. 
2felson—0\e, Mrs. Ingeborg, Ann, Nilse, Caroline, Christina, Elsie, Ole 2d, 
Ann, Annie, Mary. PWesfcr— Herman. JJ'eM-— August. IKcber— Henry, Sr. , 
Mrs. Johanna, Henry, Frederick, Louisa, William, Wilhelniina. 

And here is a summary of the material resources of the people, 
in the aggregate, at that time. 

Acres of land improved, 125; value of farms, 82,100; value of farm imple- 
ments and machinery, $750; number of horses, 3; number of working oxen, 22; 
number of milch cows, 18: number of other cattle, 21; number of swine, 19; 
value of live stock, $1,(>25. 

The name Emerald, was given to this town by the special 
commissioners in 1858, they supposing that the town was settled 
mainly by Iri.shmen, at the time, and, as one of the commissioners 
said, "Old Ireland was known as the Emerald Isle, and the national 
colors of Ireland are green, so this town should be named Emerald." 

But, strange to say, not an Irishman resided in the town at 
that time, nor ever since that day. for that matter. The name, how- 
ever, is a beautiful and appropriate one. There are several villages 
and post offices in the United States named Emerald, and it is well 
known, perhaps, that Emerald is the name given to a species of 
gems or precious stones possessing rich green colors, transparent 
and vei-y beautiful, and very costly, and the people of this town have 
long claimed that their town is the gem among the towns of this 
county. 

Relative to the organization of this town for civil purposes, it 
is found ihat it was originally attached by the special commissioners 
in 1858, to Blue Earth City township, and so remained until March 
19th, 1800, when it was detached by the county board. On the third 
day of April, following, the first town election was held, and town 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 571 

officers elected, and from that time forward it has been a separate 
and independent township. The first town officers were Henry Sel- 
len, chaii-man of town board, and August Haase and Knut Olson; 
Andrew Hanson, town clerk; Knut Anderson, assessor; H. Priester, 
treasurer; Andrew Hanson, justice of the peace and H. E. Larson, 
constable. In view of the contemplated separation of the two towns 
and preceding joint liability on certain military bounty bonds, pre- 
viously voted by the town district, an act was passed by the legis- 
lature of 1866, which provided that when the town of Emerald 
should be detached from the town of Blue Earth City, the former 
town should remain liable for its proportionate share of the amount 
of the bounties to be paid. This proportion was subsequently de- 
termined and promptly paid. 

Turning again to the letter, above referred to, Mr. Ellis says: 
"In 1858, I built the first bridge in the town, at my own expense. 
As to the first school and school house in the town, I will say that 
in the summer of 1860, I hired Mrs. C. M. Butler to teach a free 
school at my house, and this was the first school taught in the town, 
and she the first teacher. In 1863 I hired Mr. S. Peabody to teach 
a free school. Free to all who choose to come. The first district 
school house was erected in 1864." This school house was known as 
the "Frandall School House." It was a log building and served the 
purpose very well for many years, for schools, town elections, gen- 
eral elections and religious meetings. The stump speaker was also 
heard within its walls, occasionally. There are, at this time (1879), 
six good frame school houses in the town; schools are regularly 
kept, and the people, generally, have been interested in the cause of 
education. Nor have the spiritual interests of the people of this 
town been neglected, as will appear from the following interesting 
statement furnished the writer by the Rev. Dahl. 

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE NORWEGIAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN 

CONGREGATION IN EMERALD AND AD.J0INING TOWNS, 

FARIBAULT COUNTY. MINNESOTA. 

Said congregation was organized A. D. 1864, tho seventeenth of October, by 
Rev. Th. Johnson, from Nicollet county. In 1867 the congregatioa received a 
local pastor, namely: T. H. Dahl, who still is the pastor of the congregation. 
In the fall of 1869, the congregation built a parsonage, near what is known as 
the EHis bridge, in the town of Emerald, and, in the fall of 1871, a church edifice 
was comruencerl near the parsonage, which is not yet finished, but has for some 
time been used for worship. About a year ago (in the summer of '72) a church 
was commenced six miles southeast from the church in Emerald (in the western 
part of the town of Seely). It is not yet finished, but is used by the congrega- 
tion for public worship. The cost of the church in Emerald is about $1,500.00, 
and of that in Seely about $400.00. The whole congregation numbers about 140 
families. The name of the congregation is, The Norwegian Evangelical Luth- 
eran Blue Earth Congregation. 

Respectfully yours, 
Emerald, August 25th, 1873. T. H. Dahl, Pastor. 



572 BI STORY OF 

The German Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized in 
March, 1871, by the Rev. G. E. Ahner. This congregation has also 
a church building, situated on section six, which was erected about 
that year, and they have, also, a parsonage near by the church. 

And now, here is a handful of historical items of interest: 

For many years a post-olfice was established on section thirty 
(30), known as Ewald post office, but this office has now been discon- 
tinued for several years. There is now an office, named Emerald, 
on section eleven, and one, named Dell, on section twenty-three. 
Dell seems to be the headquarters of the town at present, as there 
is here the church, a parsonage, school bouse, post- office, blacksmith 
shop, several dwellings and a general store. 

The town has voted on the question of granting bounties, or 
bonuses, to aid in the construction of railroads, several times, but 
the vote was always adverse, but once. 

The township organization has been kept up from the first to 
the jiresent time. The board of town officers in 1879. the closing 
year of this sketch, was composed of the following named citizens: 
Supervisors, J. Levenick, chairman, J. Courier and G. Prandall: 
town clerk, O. C Veam; assessor, J. J. Prandall; treasurer, O. J. 
Sebben; justices of the peace, F. Dreblow and H C. Weber; con- 
stable, J. Underdall. 

Prior to the close of 1879, this town had contributed to the pub- 
lic service two members of the board of county commissioners, E. 
M. Ellis and Henry Sellen, the latter of whom was chairman of the 
board for some years. 

STATISTICS. 

The population of the town in 1860 was 76. In 1865 the people 
were enumerated with those of Blue Earth City township. In 1870 
there were 748 inhabitants; in 1875. 825; in 1880, 860. It will be 
observed that this is one of the most populous towns in the county. 
With the exception of a few Germans and Americans, the popula- 
tion is almost exclusively Norwegian, and the town has often been 
called Norway. 

From the assessor's reports for the year 1879, there were in the town, of 
horses, 453; cows, 685: other cattle, 736: luules, 8; sheep, 681: hoRS, 542, wagons 
and carriages, 111; sewing machines, 54; organs, 2. Assessed value of real 
estate, $182,340; personal property, $48,906: total, $231,246. Total amount of 
tax assessed in same year, $2,000. 

The agricultural i)ro(luctions, etc., for same year, were estimated as fol- 
lows: Wh.-at, 31,000 Ini.; oats, 45000 bu.; corn, 19,000 bu.; barley, 2,100 bu.; 
potatoes, 1,700 bu.; syrup, 1,400 gals.; timothy seed, 54 bu.; apple trees growing, 
784: wool, 3,000 lbs.; butter, 39,000 lbs; flax seed, 120 bu. Number of acres of 
cultivated land, 6,500. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 573 

Here is an interesting muster roll of settlers in Emerald town- 
ship, prior to the close of 1879, in addition to those already named: 

Jeff Anderson, K. Anderson, M. Anderson, Axel Axelson, J. Amley, O. An- 
derson, R. C. Alborn, A. Absolemson, A. O. Anderson, O. C. Anderson, N. Bot- 
tleson, O. Bottleson, C. Bottleson, A. Balke, W. Botcher, H. Burndt, J. Chil- 
son, M. Chilson, L. Chilson, J. Conrad, J. Courrier, F. Dreblow, H. T. Dahl, 
G. Dagner, L. Doege, L. Errickson, R. Elingson, C. Eckhart, H. Errickson, A. 
Endahl, A. Enarson, E. Errickson, K. Errickson, E. Enarson, J. J. Frandall, P. 
Frandall, J. S. Frandall, Geo. Frandall, L. I. Floe, Aug. Fondry, Wm. Fondry, 
J. C. Fenske, A. Fosness, K. O. Groue, Ole Gulbrandson, O. O. Gilbertson, G. 
Gesche, S. S Grove, J. Grove. C. 0. Hamre, And Hanson, Ole Holverson, E. C. 
Hamre, T. Hojverson, J. B. Henjuni, Wm. Haase, A. Haase, Ole Iverson, M. 
Johnson, O. E. Johnson, P. E. Johnson, Iver Johnson, K. Johnson, J. K. John- 
son, M. Johnson, Anfln Johnson, Wm. King, J. M. King, H. E. Larson, F. 
Levenick, J. Levenick, Hans Larson, Ed. Larson, S. Marquardt, Geo. Mittles- 
dorf, J. B. Maland, J. J. Muland, M. Monson, S. Mikleson, John Miller, N. Mad- 
son, J. Mathevps, Iver Nelson, J. Nelson, O. Nelson, N. Nelson, Ole Nelson, A. 
Nelson, P. H Nederberg, Robt. Newman, A. Odett, P. Olson, C. Oleson, H. Ole- 
son, J. Oleson, A. Pederson, G. Pederson, J. Pederson, K. Pederson, R. Rasmus- 
son, E. Rakow, G. Rakow, T. Simpson, Ole Sebben, L Sivertson, Henry Sellen, 
E. Sasse, O. Samuelson, O. S. Thompson, A. ToUefson, H. Thompson, L. O. 
Underdahl, G. Ulrickson, H. L. Underdahl, J. G. Ulrickson, J. Underdahl, S. O. 
Veum, Henry Weber, F. Weber, H. J. C. Weber, Aug. Weber, Aug. Welk, C. 
Werner, Paul Wise, W. White, G. Zupp. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 



BLUE EARTH CITY TOWNSHIP AND VILLAGE. 

We have now reached, in the order of these historical sketches, 
that portion of the territory of tlie county, known as congressional 
township number one hundred and two (102) north, of range twenty- 
seven (27) west. 

The average elevation of this township, above sea level, is 1,120 
feet. The depth of the drift, to bed-rock, has not been determined 
here, but probably exceeds one hundred feet. The surface of the 
land is well designated as rolling prairie, and is everywhere easy of 
drainage. The streams of water, in this town, are the branches of 
the Blue Earth river. Coon creek and several small nameless 
rivulets. 

The east branch of the river, rises in the eastern part of the 
county, and flows in a general westerly course, through the town, 
to its confluence with the west branch of the river, on section eight, 
about half a mile north of the village of Blue Earth City. 

The west branch of the river rises in a large swamp, just south 
of the State line, and runs northward to the point of confluence 
above stated. These united branches form the main stream of the 
Blue Earth river. 



574 HISTORY OF 

Cooa creek rises near the south line of the county, and flows 
into the town, from the southeast, and empties into the west branch 
about a mile south of the village of Blue Earth City. 

The bottom lands and blulTs bordering these streams are well 
timbered. Such timber is mainly oak, walnut, basswood. elm and 
maple, and much of it, within the limits of this town was of supe- 
rior quality. Groves of native wood are also found scattered in va- 
rious localities, throughout the town, and to all this, we must add the 
many fine groves of forest trees, throughout the town, which have 
been planted and cultivated by the people, since the settlement of 
the county. In fact, the natural advantages of streams', timber, fer- 
tile rolling prairie, rich soil, presented here, constituted the attrac- 
tions which influenced the first settler of the county, who had 
previously viewed most of the territory of the county, to finally 
locate in this town. 

But something further of an historical character should here be 
said of the Blue Earth river, which is the principal water course of 
this region, and from which is derived the name of a large region of 
country — the Blue Earth Valley — a county, a township and a village. 
The length of this stream is about fifty miles, by direct line, but if 
estimated to include its many curves and angles, its length would be 
very much greater. The general course of the river is due north, 
and it empties into the Minnesota river in Blue Earth county. It is 
not a navigable stream. Owing to the tortuous character of the 
stream, protection has been afforded for the growth of much valu- 
able timber along its borders, bottom lands and bluffs, from prairie 
fires. The bottom lands, bordering the river, vary in width from 
about a quarter of a mile to about half a mile, and are bordered by 
steep bluffs. At Blue Earth City the bottom of the the river is about 
fifty feet below the general level of the country, and northward, 
through Verona and Winnebago City townships, its depth in- 
creases from fifty to ninety or one hundred feet, below the general 
surface of the land. 

It appears evident to the careful observer, that this river and 
its two main branches in Piribault county, were, at one time, 
much larger streams than they now are. It is not improbable 
that they once covered, entirely, the bottomlands through which they 
now have but a small channel (except in times of high water), and 
that what are now known as the river bluffs, were once the true 
banks of the river. There are many valuable water powers on this 
stream, some of which have been put to good use for mill purposes. 
The adjacent country drained by the Blue Earth river and its tribu- 
taries is known as the BlueEarth river basin and "the Blue Earth 
Valley," and is undoubtedly one of the most healthful and fertile 
districts of country in the State, and destined to become one of the 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 575 

most populous and wealthy. In an article published by the writer 
of this history, many years ago, descriptive of the Blue Earth Val- 
ley, we find the following reference to the river: 

"The 'Bold Mankato,' or Blue Earth river, has its many attrac- 
tions to the lovers of nature. It is a clear, pure stream, sometimes 
noiseless in its passage, and placid as a mirror, pursuing its way 
through fertile lowlands, sometimes rushing through deep fo'rests 
and dark glens, breaking over rocky cataracts, sometimes rising in 
its might and like a savage warrior, breasting its way through steep 
bluffs and primeval I'ocks, and goes rushing on its course to the 
Minnesota. Here, too, bordering the river are wide-spreading 
landscapes, picturesque and beautiful as the eye wishes to rest up- 
on, and deep, dark, old forests, penetrated, until lately, only by the 
red man, whose camp fires have scarcely yet gone out." 

On several maps of Minnesota, made by the early French ex- 
plorers, this river is named the St. Henry's river, but — -The Sioux 
Indian and original name of the river was Ma-ka-to (Blue Earth), or 
Makatoose — the Mankato river. It was sometimes called the "Bold 
Mankato." It is said this name, "Blue Earth was given on account 
of beds of blue clay along its banks, which give a bluish tinge to the 
water." The clay was long used by the Indians for paint. (See 
Collections, Minnesota Historical Society). But it has also been 
said that the river derived its name from certain mines of bluish or 
greenish earths, of a peculiar character, found near the mouth of 
the river, as appears from the following bit of ancient history, for 
this river was well known, in the very earliest history of the region, 
now known as Minnesota. 

In the year 1700, M. Le Sueur, a Frenchman, with a felucca (a 
small boat), two canoes and nineteen men, ascended the Mississippi 
river from a post on the Gulf of Mexico, on a tour of exploration in 
Minnesota, and with the further intention of establishing a fort and 
fur trading post, and work certain mines of blue earth, near the 
mouth of the stream known as the Blue Earth river. This peculiar 
earth had been discovered by Le Sueur, on an exploring expedition, 
several years before, and was thought, by him and others, to pos- 
sess some great intrinsic value. About the first of October, of that 
year, after passing through many dangers in this, then, savage re- 
gion, he entered the river and ascended a short distance, and, by 
the fourteenth of the month, he had completed the erection of a 
rude, but strong fort, and named it Fort Le Huillier, in honor of the 
farmer-general of Paris, France, who had encouraged him in his 
projects. On the twenty-fifth of the same month, Le Sueur went up 
the river a short distance to inspect the character of the green and blue 
earth. It seems that the exact locality of this colored earth was on 
a branch of the Blue Earth river, called, subsequently, by Nicollet, 



576 HISTORY OF 

the Le Sueur river, and about a mile above the fort. The exact spot 
where the fort was built canuot now be determined. Le Sueur and 
his men spent the winter in this fort, trading with the Indians, and 
in the following April he obtained about thirty thousand pounds of the 
colored earth, from which he selected some four thousand pounds, 
and he, with six of his men, left for his southern post. He subse- 
quently sent his earth to France for analysis. It proved to have no 
particular value. The thirteen men whom he left in charge of the 
fort remained until the spring of 1701!, when they, also, left the 
country. 

But here is another view, as to the derivation of the word Man- 
kato. 

To the Editor of the Pioneer Press:— In the report of the valuable address de- 
livered by General Baker at the reunion of the old settlers at Le Sueur, I see 
that in speaking of the Blue Earth river, he says, Mahkotah is the ladian name 
for Blue Earth. The Indian name was subsequently given to the city, with a 
simpler orthography, viz., Mankato. Some years ago, J. C. Wise, of Mankato, 
wrote to the editor of the Minnesota Monthly, then printed at St. Paul, asking 
for informatuin upon the derivation of the word Mankato. The said editor 
proposed a plan fur the survey of the town, and also the name, Mankato, both 
of which were accepted by the original proprietors. He further says, in his an- 
swer, that the name is not of Indian origin. It is derived from the report of 
the survey of Minnesota, by J. N. Nicollet, published in 184.'J, and was the 
source whence was derived the name of the flourishing town referred to. 
Among these (the regions of country adjoining the Coteau des Prairies), that 
which seemed to me the most favorable is the one watered by the bold Man- 
kato, or Blue Earth river, and to which I have given the name of Undine re- 
gion." ''It was on a visit to lakes Okamanipadan and Tchaiihassan (Little 
Heron and Maple Wood lakes) that it occurred to me to give it the name I have 
adopted, derived from that interesting and Romantic German tale, the heroine 
of which belonged to the extensive race of water sprites, living in the brooks 
and rivers and lakes, whose father was a mighty prince. She was, moreover, 
the niece of a great brook — the Mankato— who lived in the forests, and who 
was beloved by all the great streams of the surrounding country." Nicollet 
fancied an analogy between the ideal country described in the tale and the re- 
gion before him, and involuntarily adopted the name. I havt not seen the 
name Mankato in the translation of the German tale Undine, and the name 
Mahkotah, certainly resembles Mankato. But Nicollet could not have made an 
error, and the very resemblance of the words may have led others to suppose an 
Indian derivation. Can any one throw any further light upon the question? 

T E. UowEX. 

It is extremely probable thatLe Sueur, or some of his men, vis- 
ited the region now comprising this county, during their stay at 
FortL'Huillier. A great part of their business was trading with 
the Indians, and exploration. Soon after Le Sueur arrived, he sent 
two of his men, probably overland, to invite the Ayavois (lowas) and 
Otoctatas (Ottoes), who possessed the country about the upper 
waters of the Blue Earth, to come and establish a village near the 
fort, giving as a reason for this, that these Indians were reputed to 
be industrious, and accustomed to cultivate the soil, and he hoped to 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 577 

get provisions from them, and have them work in the mines. The 
messengers returned, however, after several days, having failed to 
find the way that led to the locality of the Indians. This could not 
well have happened had they gone by boat. 

The principal method of travel and transportation, in that day, 
used by explorers and voyagers, was by boats. The streams were, 
doubtless, much larger then than they now are. But we cannot pur- 
sue these subjects further here. A fine volume might be written of 
the explorations, the Indian history, legends and traditions of the 
Blue Earth valley. It is a region of romantic and of startling events 
occurring in the long ago, and of which the people of this time 
know but little. 

FIRST SETTLEMENT. 

Moses Sailor, who, with his family, settled in the town May 25th, 
1855, was the first settler of the town, as he was, also, the first set- 
tler in the county, and this was, consequently, the first town in the 
county, in which settlement was made. 

For a full account of Mr. Sailor, and his settlement here, the 
reader is referred to chapter first, Part First, of this history, com- 
prising the events of the year 1855. 

THE VILLAGE OF BLUE EARTH CITY. 

Following events in their order, we now record the fact that 
Blue Earth City, the only village in the township, and the oldest in 
the county, was surveyed and platted in July, 1856, and the first 
buildings were erected in that year. The founding of the village 
preceded the organization and naming of the township. The origi- 
nal proprietors and founders of the village were James B. Wakefield, 
Henry P. Constans, Samuel V. Hibler and Spier Spencer. 

The original town site embraces three hundred and twenty acres, 
being the north half of section seventeen. Three additions, Dow 
& Bowen's and Young's, of forty acres each, and McArthur's, were 
subsequently laid out. It is located upon a circular prairie, of about 
one mile in diameter, and is surrounded, almost entirely, by streams 
of water and timber. The town site is high, rolling prairie, dotted 
over with small groves of oak, popple, cottonwood and other trees. 

The village derives its name from the river. There have been 
two occasions, widely separated by years, when there was consider- 
able serious talk of changing the name of the village for various 
reasons given, but no official action was had, and it is not probable 
that the name will ever be changed. 

By the act organizing the county, the county seat was located 
at Blue Earth City, and the question of location was voted upon at 
the next general election, which was held in October, 1856, and was 
decided unanimously in favor of Blue Earth City. The question of 



578 HISTORY OF 

removal of the county seat from Blue Earth City to Winnebago City 
■was voted upon at the general election of 18G1, and a large majority 
of the votes proved to be against removal, and the capital of the 
county has remained, from the first, at this village. But our gen- 
eral history of the county will show that many subsequent attempts 
have been made to remove the county seat. 

By act of the legislature, approved March 1st, 187L*, the village 
of Blue Earth City was incorporated, subject, however, to ratifica- 
tion or rejection by the voters of the township, at the next ensuing 
town meeting, which was held in March. The act was ratified, but 
remained inoperative, until an election of village oflScers. The first 
election for village officers, under this charter, was held April 1st, 
1874, when the following officers were elected: J. H. Sprout, pres- 
ident; S. S. Burleson, H. P. Constans and S. PfefTer, trustees; Alex. 
Anderson, recorder, and D. P. Goodrich, justice of the peace. 

The act of incorporation, or "village charter" of 1872, proving 
very defective in many particulars, the village was re incorporated 
by act of the legislature, approved January 27th, 1879. The latter 
act was much more extensive, and much more complete in its pro- 
visions than the former one. The limits of the territory included 
in the corporation were greatly extended, by this act, beyond the 
former boundaries. The first election, under the latter act, was 
held on the first Tuesday of April. 1879. 

As the history of the village of Blue Earth City is largely incor- 
porated in the general history of the county, from year to j'ear, the 
reader is referred to that record, and especially for an account of 
the events attending the founding of the village, which will be 
found in the history of the year 1856. Many items of historical in- 
terest, relating to the village, will also be found in this historical 
sketch of the township of Blue Earth City proper. The village 
having been the county seat since the organization of the county, 
and, being the oldest village in the county, and having had. from 
the beginning, a law-abiding, industrious, public spirited class of 
inhabitants, its people have always taken a leading and prominent 
part in all the principal political, religious, reformatory and other 
projects, associations and ijublic enterprises of the county. 

HON. JAMES B. WAKEFIELD. 

It is quite proper, that in connection with an historical sl^etch of Blue 
Earth City, there should In; ^'Iven a hiograpliical notice of Mr.Waketluld, one of 
tht! II rst settlers of thecimnly, and one of the original town site proprietors, and 
a resident of the village from its founding, to the close of his lite, with the ex- 
ception of a few short periods when alisent on official duty. 

Mr. Wakefield was born at Winsted, Conn., on the twenty-first day of 
March, 1828. His father. Dr. Luman Wakefield, was a distinguished physician, 
of that state. James received his preparatory education at Westlleld, Mass., 




J. n. WAKKKIIvLI). 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 579 

and Jonesville, N. Y., and, in 1843, he entered Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., 
as a sophomore, and graduated in 1846. He read law at Painsville, Ohio, under 
the direction of Judge E. T. Wilder, his brother-in-law, and was admitted to 
the bar, at Delphi, Indiana, in 1851, where he engaged in the practice of law for 
two years. 

In April, 1854, Mr. Wakefleld came to Minnesota and located at Shakopee, 
where he engaged in the business of the profession, with Judge L. M. Brown. 

In February, 1856, he, in company with several other persons, came to this 
county and founded Blue Earth City, as is more fully detailed in our general 
history of the year 1856. 

Mr. Wakefleld was the principal actor in the work of securing the organiza- 
ticm of the county, and was the first chairman of the first board of county com- 
missioners, of the county, and was, again, a member of the board in 1859. He 
was, also, tlie first judge of probate, of the county, and also held theofficeof reg- 
ister of deeds some time. He was county attorney in 1857, and again in 1860-61, 
and was twice elected, subsequently, to that office, but declined to serve further. 
He was elected, in 1857, a member of the House of Representatives, in the last 
Territorial and first State legislature. In 1861 he was appointed deputy agent, 
at the lower Sioux Indian agency, in Minnesota, but returned to Blue Earth 
City at the time of the outbreak of the Indians, in August, 1862. In 1863 he 
was again a member of the lower House of our State legislature. 

Mr. Wakefleld was married, at Blue Earth City, in 1864 

He was again, in 1866, a member of tlie House, and was elected speaker of 
the House, during the session of that year. He was State senator, for this dis- 
trict, in 1867, 1868 and 1869, but resigned the office of State senator about the 
middle of his second term, to accept the appointment of receiver of the United 
States laud office, Winnebago City district, to which office he was appointed by 
President Grant, in 1869. He held this office six years, when he resigned it. 
In 1875, Mr. Wakefield was elected lieutenant governor of this State, and, in 
1877, was again elected, serving in that office two terms, and presided in the 
State Senate, at the sessions of 1876, 1877, 1878 and 1879. In the fall of 1882, he 
was elected representative in congress, for this district, and was again elected, 
in 1884, for a second term, both of which he served. He was not a candidate 
for re-election in 1886. 

In 1886, old Trinity College conferred upon him the very honorable degree 
of Doctor of Laws. Mr. Wakefield has been a republican since the organization 
of the party, and has, for many years, taken an active part in the politics of the 
State. He was chairman, of the Minnesota delegation, in the national con- 
vention in 1868, which nominated General Grant for the presidency, and was a 
a member of the Minnesota delegation in the national convention of 1876, 
which nominated General Hayes as the republican candidate for the presi- 
dency. Mr. Wakefield's name, it will be observed, appears very often in the 
course of this history, he having been so closely identified with the progress, 
improvements and important events of the county, from the beginning. 

OTHER EARLY SETTLERS. 

The names of other early residents of this township will be found 
in the following lists, which is a copy of the roll of inhabitants, in 
June, 1860, according to the census taken at that time. 

^/irens— George, Mrs. Louisa, George, Frank, Alvira. 4ndreM)s— Alfred D. 
4rnot— John. i?omoc/J— Arthur. Bloehner—iowa. Boioen—Th^Q. Burgess— 
Geo. Barker— Fied. Butler— Zimri C, Mrs. Caroline, Delia. Beidle— John, 
Mrs. Mary, Joseph, John, Mary. Beebe-A\onzo, Mrs. Lucretia, Mary Edward. 



580 HISTORY OF 

lilnncltard—Chns. Blunchaid—'Wm. JSUlings—Livyi Sr.. Mrs. Mary, Levi Jr., 
Albert, Oliver. Beaumont— John B., Mrs. Kujti;nia, Ernt-st. liertmm—Jas. 
Belts — AIniira. Conxtdus—Urury P., Mrs. liartiara, Charles, PM ward, Theodore. 
Converse — Geo. S., Mrs. .lulia, ('ynthia, Kn-derick, Frank, Clara. Cln-ixtopherson 
—Christopher, Mrs Anna, Solvi, Erick, Gillog. Cou/fer— John B., Mrs. Eliza- 
beth, Leon, Lucien, Anestine, Adalaid. Cult— Jos. B., Mrs. Sarah. Decker— 
James, Mrs. Catherine, Artetuus, Gustavus, Eii>;ene. Bavy—PeU'T B., Mrs. 
Calista, Frank. Z>o6,son--James, Mrs. Adeline. £ioaW— John C, Mrs. Louisa, 
Frederick, Henry, Sophia, Johanna, Matilda. J'o.stcr— Reuben R., Mrs. Ufi)ucca 
Viran, Ethiuer.Girshani, Reulien. Fdniu-e— Horace A. i-'aWoic— Leander, Mrs. 
Frances, Frank. Fuckkr—AV/Ann, Calista. (Jot/Zorrf— Edmund. fr(ir<?»cc— Or- 
lando N., Mrs. Helen, Jennie, Henry. (fiUit-J.h., Mrs. Maranda, Paiuelia, 
Baldwin. (?!7(i7— William, Mrs. P^liza, Mary, Orrin. fli/?— Wesley. Harmon - 
Leonard, Mrs. Frances, ffurm— Wm., Mrs. Emily, Peter, Mary, Hannah, 
Clarissa. i/a)m7ton— Saml. B., Mrs. Elizabeth, Minnesota, Emma. Hadley— 
J. W., Mrs. Nancy, James, Edwin, Helen, Benjamin, Cecil, Charles, Ella. Hill 
—Onslow G., Mrs. Cynthia, Minnie. Harrington — Catharine. //wc/aiuJ — John 
C, Mrs. Melinda, Fay, Lefaver, Mallet. Hannah, Lydia. /o/i».so?i— John, Mrs. 
Annetta, Josephine. Jo/uisod— Alexander. Mrs. Esther, Emma. Johmton — 
James. Johnson — Albin, Mrs. Kancy, Lois. William. Johnson — Josiah G. Mrs. 
Leonora. yo/uiso>i— Addison, .Sophia. Kim/sky— Geo. B. 7wc*(e)-— Jacob A., 
Mrs. Caroline, iu^ti;/— Joseph, Mrs. Mary. Jioo»ze— John, Mrs. Elizabeth, An- 
toin, Frederick, Charles. JiTots— August, Mrs Anestine, William, Frederick. 
.Kcesfc)'- Peter J.. Mrs. Margaret, Mary, Elizabeth, Matilda, Henry. Leslie — 
Saml., Mrs. Jane, Samuel, John, Mary. Lu/e -Hopkins, Mrs. Mary, Mary. 
Lake — John D. Mann — Christian H. JUend— Israel S., Mrs. Maria, James, 
Frederick, Stephen, Phebe, Abigail, Alice, .Sarah, il/oioi^- John E., Mrs. Sarah 
Humphrey, Phiima. Mdvin—yVm. A. Manthie—Wm. Munthk — Julius. J/iaJge 
—Aaron, Mrs. Lydia, Charles, William, Richard. J/eoiJ— Solomon. Monalian 
—John A.. Mrs. Margaret. Clara. J/cCVea— Matthew. Miilkn-John. Xeal- 
Henry J., Mrs. Esther. .A'eicmfui— Lewis. PraM— John K., Mrs. Hannah, Vic- 
toria. Pan.s/i— Peter, Mrs. Harriet, George, Olive. Proper- Carlos. Ream— 
Robt. A. i?ose— Aaron J., Mrs. Catharine, Irene, Jacob, Charles, William. 
7f((2/}HO»d— Elienezer, Mrs. Sarah, Charles. Pc!ji/(«rf— Nanette. Sly— Chester 
M., Mrs. Loriza, Ella. iSarj/ewf— Gilbert. Sco»— Wm. M., Mrs. Melvina, Mary, 
.S'crrto-— Albert. SiVmic/d— Wayne B. <S'oi((/i— Eveline, Ellas, Peter, John, Mar- 
garet, Frank, Christopher. Soh^/(— William G, Mrs. Mary, Ambrosia, Alfer- 
etta, Laurie. iSaifor— Moses, Amanda, Roxana, Daniel, William, Manuel. 
S(n7or— Jacob M., Mrs. Sarah, Hattie. Saitor— Martin, Mrs. Louisa, Martha. 
jS'aiVor- Jacob, Mrs. Susanna, George, Mary, Letitia. 6'ajtor— Able. Hhirk— 
David E. SeHcji— Henry, Mrs. Sarah. Snii(/t— George, Mrs. Adelaide, 
Gilbert. Skidler — Josephus, Mrs. Martha, Jane E. Schroeder — Servertz, 
Mrs. Mary, William, Hubert, Peter. <S(0)i?fi/— George. Schneidei- — Marcus A. 
Schneidtr — John. Woesner — Andrew, Mrs. Wilhelmena. IKafle- Samuel, Mrs. 
Margaret, John, George, Rosalie. Wakefitld—J&s. B. ll'i/mfrt— John, Mrs. 
Amelia, Mary, Henry. U'lV/jHcrt— August, Mrs. Louisa, Amelia, John, Freder- 
ick, ire^sfer— Charlotte. Tri7/iaws— William, Mrs. Louisa. Way— Wm. A., 
Mrs. Harriet, Melona, Emma, Clarence, IFes<— David, Mrs. Elizabeth, Mary, 
Francis. you7i3— Enoch C, Mrs. Mary, Andrew. I'orJ.-— James. 

But there were quite a number of persons who resided, for longeror shorter 
periods, in the township, who had left prior to the taking of this census, or 
were absent temporarily at the time, and who must not be forgotten. Among 
such we llnd the names of the following persons: Perry Lamphere, Jno. M 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 581 

Love, Ed. Woods, Simon Dow, W. W. Knapp, J. A. J. Bird, Orville Kimball, 
Isaac E. Grout, Lewis P. Grout, Joe Durgin, Cornelius Garretson, Sauiuel V. 
Hibler, Dan Sherwood, A. Shaw, Jonas Tennesen, Geo. Merriam, J. D. Sparks. 
The following table, made up from the census reports of that 
year, exhibits the aggregate numbers of stock, value of farms, etc., 
in the township at that date. It is interesting, as a matter for com- 
parison with later years. 

Acre.s of improved land, 77.5; value of farms, $31,100; value of farm imple- 
ments and machinery, $2,270; number of horses, 46; number of milch cows, 59; 
number of working oxen, 58; number of other cattle, 67; number of sheep, 5; 
number of swine, 212; value of live stock, $9,012. 

THE NAME. 

The township was named Blue Earth City by the special com- 
missioners in 1858, in compliance with the request of citizens of the 
village of this name. Thus the name of the township is derived 
from the village, and the name of the village is derived from the 
river, and the name of the river is derived from the Indians, or pos- 
sibly from a German romance. 

ORGANIZATION. 

The town was organized for civil purposes on the twentieth day 
of October, 1858, on which day a town meeting was held and the first 
town officers were elected. Their names will be found in the table 
appended hereto. At this town meeting a curious resolution was 
adopted, which reads: "Resolved, that after the first day of Novem- 
ber, next, it shall be unlawful for /ior/.? and swine to run at large." 
The vote cast at this meeting was fifty-eight. The first meeting of 
the town board was held on the thirtieth day of October. The town 
of Emei'ald had been attached to Blue Earth City townbhip, for 
town purposes, and was included in this organization of the town. 
Emerald remained attached to Blue Earth City township until 
March 19th, 1866, when it was detached by the county commission- 
ers. 

The following named citizens were elected the first town officers: Super- 
visors, James B. Wakefield, chairman, A. Johnson and W. A. Way; town clerk, 
A. Bonwell; assessor, O, N. Gardner; treasurer, R. English; justices of the 
peace, G. S. Converse, W. A. Melvin; constables, R. English and J. Johnson. 

The officers for the year 1879, the last year of this historical sketch, were as 
follows: Supervisors, Geo. B. Kingsley, chairman, Geo. Strong and A.Kobs; 
town clerk, C. A. Pinkham: assessor, W. M. Scott; treasurer, A. Anderson; 
justices of the peace, Geo. B. Kingsley and S. W. Graham; constables, G. D. 
Moore and J. H. Mead. 

RELIGIOUS AND OTHER SOCIETIES. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church was first organized, in this 
township, at Blue Earth City, in December. 1857, Rev. J. W. Powell, 
pastor, and was the first denominational organization in the town. 



582 niSTOUY OF 

This society, in November. 1872, erected a neat chapel at Blue Earth 
City. Some years later (1887) a large and handsome church edifice 
■was erected by this denomination. 

The Presbyterian Church was organized at Blue Earth City, on 
the seventh day of March, 1859, Kev. J. E. Conrad, pastor. This 
denomination has a commodious church building, erected in Novem- 
ber. 1866. at a cost of about Si.OOO. It was greatly repaired and im- 
proved in 1880. 

A lodge of Good Templars was instituted, in the village, in 
September. 18G0, but soon ceased to exist. The Order has been re- 
organized here many times since the first lodge was instituted. 

A congregation of the Roman Catholic Church was partially 
organized, at Blue Earth City, prior to 1863, but it was on the second 
day of March, of that year, that the first meeting was called to con- 
sider the question of erecting a church edifice. A number of meet- 
ing were subsequently held for the purpose of collecting money and 
and making the necessary arrangements, until, finally, in July, 1866. 
the building was erected. This structure was but a small one, being 
only eighteen by twenty five feet, but the size was- subsequently in- 
creased, by an addition in the rear, of thirty feet. This was the 
first church building in the village. Some years afterwards, a par- 
sonage was also erected, near the church, but was subsequently sold 
and removed. These buildings served the purposes of the parish 
until 1880, when, under the pastorate of Rev. Father Theodore 
Venn, who took charge of the parish in 1873, a large, brick church 
building was erected, forty four by one hundred feet, and of excel- 
lent style and workmanship. 

Father Venn had already won the honorable title of "The 
Church Builder," owing to the great number of church edifices he 
had caused to be erected before coming here, and this building, one 
of the finest church structures in this portion of the State, but added 
to his well earned fame. 

The dedication of the new church occurred on Sunday, May 
21st. 1882. The non-resident clergy, who took part in the cere- 
monies, were: Rt. Rev John Ireland, bishop of St. Paul; Rev. A. 
Ravoux. Vicar. General; Rev. P. Hanley. of Chalfield, Minn.; Rev. 
P. Schnitzler. of Mankato, Minn. 

A large concourse of people wore in attendance, some coming 
from St. Paul, many from Mankato and other towns along the lines 
of the railroads, and from the SMrrounding country. The ceremonies 
of dedication were highlj' appropriate, solemn and impressive. 

Emmanuel church of the German Evangelical Association, was 
organized in December, 1864, Rev. Joseph Rahscopp, pastor, and in 
August and September. 1865, the society erected a large frame 
church edifice on section thirteen. The society has since built a 




CHURCH OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 583 

parsonage near the church. This was the first church erected in 
the county. This congregation had, however, an informal organiza- 
tion prior to the above date. The church structure, above referred 
to, has since been succeeded by one of the largest and most costly 
church buildings in the county. 

Blue Earth City Lodge, No. Pifty-seven(57), Ancient, Free and 
Accepted Masons, U. D., was organized at Blue Earth City, June 
19th, 1866, T. H. White, W. M. 

The Protestant Episcopal church established a mission at Blue 
Earth City in January, 1871, and erected a church building in No- 
vember, following. A rectory was also built near the church, all 
under the superintendence of Rev. S. S. Burleson, pastor. 

On March 15th, 1873, a Grange of the Order of Patrons of Hus- 
bandry was instituted at Blue Earth City, L. W. Brown, master; 
T. V. Braithwait, secretary; P. W. Temple, treasurer. This Grange 
became a large and flourishing one, and continued to exist longer 
than other granges established in this part of the State. 

A lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen was instituted 
at Blue Earth City, November 8th, 1877, N. L. Heffron, master work- 
man; C. H. Slocum, recorder; Samuel Schulei", receiver. 

Salem Congregation, of the German Evangelical Association, 
was organized at Blue Earth City prior co the closing year of this 
history. This congregation erected a church building in 1881, which 
was sold in 1895, and in that year the society built a new church edi- 
fice, large, and elegantly finished and furnished. 

Many minor societies and associations, literary, educational and 
social, and such as are found in all enlightened communities, have 
been established here from time to time, but which, being mainly of 
an ephemeral character, need not be named here. 

THE FIRST BANK. 

The first banking institution established at Blue Earth City was 
a private bank, founded in 1866, by Messrs. H. D. Baldwin and S. 
P. Child, under the firm name of Baldwin & Child. 

A "Board of Trade and Public Improvements," was organized 
at Blue Earth City, in January, 1875, C. H. Dearborn, president; R. 
C. Tremain, secretary; S. Teskey, treasurer. The board embraced 
in its membership, most of the active business men of the village, 
and for several years it served a good purpose in promoting the 
interests of the locality. 

THE GOSPEL, 

There are two persons who should be named in any history of 
Blue Earth City, because they were the pioneers of the ministry in 
this county, and long identified with the county, and especially with 
Blue Earth City, in church and all reformatory societies. They 



584 HISTORY OF 

were the Kev. James W. Powell and Rev. J. E. Conrad, of whom 
brief biographical sketches are liere presented. Mr. Powell was born 
in Dearborn county, Indiana, on the fifteenth day of August, 1822. 
His opportunities for getting an education were limited to the com- 
mon winter schools of the locality, until he had reached the age of 
eighteen years, when he attended Shelby County Seminary for a 
short time. He returned to this school when he was twenty-two 
years old, and remained some months. He took his theological 
course, of four years, while he was in the active ministry, and has 
always been a student. He was raised a farmer by occupation. He, 
in 1845, entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
joining the Indiana Conference, and continued in the work during 
his life. He was married, in 1847, to Miss Rhoda B. Gray. They 
have had eleven children, five of whom are now (1887) dead. He 
came, with his family, in 1855, to Mankato, and was the first regu- 
lar pastor of the church at that city. In his service in the ministry, 
he first preached in this county in the winter of 1856-7. being then 
located at Sholbyville, in Blue Earth county. In the spring of 1857, 
Blue Earth City was added to his work. The Blue Earth City Class 
was not organized until the winter of 1857-8. In 1859 he moved his 
family to Blue Earth City, where he remained until he became a 
resident of Verona, where he was living in June, 1860, but he still 
had charge of the Blue Earth City mission until the fall of that year. 
He was engaged in various charges in the State until 1871. when he 
returned to Blue Earth City and remained two years. In 1872 he 
built the chapel at that place, and in the fall of 1873 he left Blue 
Earth City and served on various charges for some twelve years, 
when, in 1885, he again returned to Blue Earth City, and, in 1887, 
erected the Methodist Episcopal Church at that place, one of the 
largest and finest church buildings in the county. He then left 
Blue Earth City and has since been serving in various localities in 
the State. Mr. PowelFs early affiliations were with the whig party, 
afterwards with the republican, and of late years, he has been an 
active prohibitionist. 

REV. J. E. CONRAD. 

The Rev. J. E. Coorafl was a native of the state of North Carolina, where 
he was born io 1814. The family removed to Missouri in 1821, and cnijaKed in 
farmin^f. Mr. Conrad resided on the farm until 183G. Up to this time he had 
received some eighteen month's schooling in the common schoolsof that section 
of the country. 

In November, 1836, being then twenty-two years old, he entered Dr. Nelson's 
Mission Institute, near (,»iiiticy, 111., where he remained a number of years and 
graduated. Jlf then took a year of theoloj^'ical study. He was licensed to preach 
by Schuyler Presbytery, in April. lH4r.. In September, of that year, he went to 
Cincinnati, Ohio, and attended Lane .Seminary for one year. 

In 1846 he was married to Miss Therina Urocltway, and they removed, in 
November, of that year, to Warsaw. Ind. lie was ordained by the Presbytery, 



^ 

? 




/ Mf 




KKW J. \V, I'OW IJLL. 




REV. J. E. CONRAD. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 585 

of Logansport, Ind., in April, 1847. He remained in Warsaw, and vicinity, 
preaching nearly ten years. During this tinae his wife and two children died. 

In August, 1854, he was married to Miss Margaret Slagle. They came to 
Minnesota in November, 1856, and located at Sterling, in Blue Earth county, 
and commenced farming. But Mr. Conrad continued to preach at various places. 
Hesoon after commenced the worlt of the ministry in this county. Reorganized 
the Presbyterian Church, at Winnebago City, Blue Earth City and Minnesota 
Lake, and preached to them from two to ten years each, and preached, also, to 
the congregation at Wells, in this county, five years. He resided at Blue Earth 
City in the winters of 1863-4 and 1871-2, and at Wells in the winters of 1874-5, 
but, aside from the above short absences, he resided on his farm at Sterling, 
in Blue Earth county, for thirty-one years, to 1887. 

He also organized the church at Mapleton and Amboy, in Blue Earth 
county, at which latter place he ministered during eighteen years, one-half the 
time, while the other half was devoted to other localities. His wife died in 
November, 1882. At this date (1887) six children are living, three boys and 
three girls. Two of his sons are now ministers in the Presbyterian church. 

Politically Mr. Conrad was brought up a Jackson democrat, but in 1840 he 
went over to the anti-slavery party, but afterwards became a republican, and so 
remained until 1889, when he became a prohibitionist. He never held any 
political office. 

The above sketch may now he supplemented by the statement, that Father 
Conrad (since 1890) pass='d his declining years with one of his sons, who is the 
pastor of tlie church at Blue Earth City. Though too old to have the care of a 
parish, he still preached, quite frequently, up to near the time of his death, 
which occurred May 6th, 1896. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

The first school, kept in this township, was a subscription and 
contribution school, taught in the winter of 1857-8, by W. W. Knapp, 
Esq.. at Blue Earth City. There were but few children at the time, 
to send to school, and in order to have the school, it was necessary 
that quite a number of the citizens, who had no children to send to 
the school, should contribute, somewhat, for its support. 

After the organization of the first school district, in 1859, the 
schools, at Blue Earth City, were the ordinary district schools, and 
were kept in hired rooms, until the erection of the first district 
school house, which was completed about the first of November, 
1861, at Blue Earth City. This was quite a large frame structure, 
twenty-four by thirty feet, and one story in height. For a long 
time it was the best school house in the county. Some years after 
its erection, the house was doubled in size, by an addition. This 
building was situated on "The Court House Square." It was subse- 
quently sold and removed. 

In April, 1872, the old district, which numbered fourteen (14), 
was changed to Blue Earth City independent school district, and 
was fully organized, as an independent district, by the election of 
a board of education, in May, of that year. In the course of years, 
this first school building became too small, and additional rooms had 
to be hired, for the use of different departments of the school. 



586 « U I STORY OF 

In 1M74 the district erected a large two story brick school house 
on block seventy-seven, in this village, at a cost of about six 
thousand dollars. A large addition, costing about three thousand 
dollars, was built in 1882, and the entire building now constitutes 
one of the largest, most convenient and most substantial school 
houses in the county. The school is known as a "graded school" of 
six departments, and is ordinarily, attended bj' many scholars who 
reside out of the district, in addition to resident pupils, thus attest- 
ing to the standing of the school. In the mean time, the people in 
other parts of the township have organized their school districts 
and erected school houses and have had good schools, there being 
now four school houses outside of the village, situated respectively, 
on sections ten, twelve, twentj'-six and twentj'-eight, all of which 
are substantial structures, well finished, well furnished and well 
filled. 

THE FIRST BRICK. 

The first manufacturing industry in the county was, pi'obably, 
that of making brick. Captain J. B. Gillit, in August and Septem- 
ber, of 1856, made a small kiln of excellent brick on lands adjoin- 
ing the village site of Blue Earth City. 

The first child born in the township was Mary Frances Gillit, 
daughter of W. C. Gillit. She was born on the 20th day of Febru- 
ary, 1857. The first female child born in the village of Blue Earth 
City was Emma Way. daughter of W. A Way. She was born in 
April, 1857, and the first male child born in the village was Chas. 
W. Constans, son of Henry P. Constans. born in November. 1857. 
The first frame house that was erected in the village was built by 
Jas. B. Wakefield, in 1857. on lot 5, block 94. It was sixteen by 
twenty-four feet, and one and ahalf story in height, and painted 
W'hite. 

WAR BOUNTIES. 

During the war of the rebellion, the town gave certain bounties 
for the purpose of encouraging enlistments in the military service, 
as follows: The town board, on the twelfth of December, 1863, otfered 
a bounty of ?50 to any volunteers who should enlist prior to .Janu- 
ary 5th, 1864. On the eighth of August, 18G4, the bounty was raised 
to $100 to all volunteers enlisting to the credit of the town, and on 
the fourteenth of January, 1865, a special town meeting was held, at 
which it was voted to give 8500 to such volunteer, and the action 
of the town meeting was indorsed b}' resolution of the town board 
January 30th, 1865. The aggregate amount of the bounties given 
was large, but was paid to the last dollar. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 587 

AN INDIAN POW-WOW. 

Early in the summer of 1862, there came to Blue Earth City a 
company of Sioux and Winnebago Indians, with their ponies, carts 
and dogs, and camped on the court house block, where the court 
house now stands. In the afternoon they put up a large enclosure, 
under the trees, made of brush, old canvass and carpet, and in the 
evening they gave a number of performances, to see wliich they re- 
quired the payment of a small admittance fee. Their lights were 
some sort of smoking, flaring pitch lamps and torches. They were 
a dirty and hard looking company. The performances consisted of 
the corn dance, hunting dance, wedding dance, scalp dance, war 
dances, and the monotonous, melancholy Indian songs, dirges and 
chants, sung to the beating of the tomtom. Among their songs 
was the death song. When these savages, almost naked, and hide- 
ously painted and armed with clubs, hatchets and large knives, went 
through their gyrations, jumpings, dancing, flourishing their wea- 
pons and uttering their wild, piercing war-whoops, they ax:)peared 
and acted more like incarnate fiends than human beings. The 
scenes were startling, wild, weird and impressive, and not desirable 
to be seen a second time. Some people had suspicions at the time 
that this visit had some serious significance, and it was said, when 
in August the great massacre occurred, that these Indians were 
spies, who came to see the condition of the country, but as this 
county was not attacked during the outbreak, the supi^osition was 
doubtless erroneous. 

The first newspaper published at Blue Earth City, and the first in 
the county, was issued in April, 1861, as will be seen by reference 
to the general histoiy of that year. A paper has been published at 
that place, continuously, from that time to the present, with the 
exception of a period of less than two years, extending from about 
October, 1862, to March. 1864. There have been as many as four 
papers published at that place at the same time. The newspapers 
published at Blue Earth City at the close of this history — 1879 — 
were The Bee and The Blue Earth City Post. Carr Huntington was 
the proprietor and editor of the Bee, and C. H. Slocum of the Post. 

CARR HUNTINGTON. 

Mr. Huntington was the oldest editor in the business, in the county, and 
one of the oldest editors in the northwest. He was born September 29th, 1815, 
in Addison count}', Vermont. He was a descendant of the Huntington's of revo- 
lutionary fame. He learned the printing trade and wurlced as a journeyman 
printer in most of the States of the Union, at that time, but especially in the 
southern states, where he spent many years. For some time he was employed 
in the office of a paper published in Kentucky, by a Mr.Gibbon. Mr. Gibbon was 
killed by an assassin, and Mr. Huntington, at the request of the widow of the 
deceased, continued the publication of the paper. In 1846 Mr. Huntington was 



588 HISTORY OF 

married to Mrs. Sarah Olbtifin, the widow of the murdered man. At various 
periods of his life, Mr. Iliintinjjton published newspapers In Kentucliy, Indi- 
ana, IlliiKiis, Wisconsin, and latterly in Minnesota. Some of the papers which 
he pnlilislu'd were dailies, of considerable prominence. lie came to this county 
from, it is believed, Portage City, Wiscon.sin, in 1863, and established "The 
H'/iiy o/TC," at Winnebago City. This was the first paper published at Win- 
nebago City. He sold his press here and located at Blue Earth City, where In 
March, 1804. he established the "Blue Earth City Advocate:' lie remained at 
Blue Earth City, publishing a paper, under various names, until September, 
1871, when he sold out. Up to that time he had been in the business of pub- 
lishing newspapers for twenty-seven years. Of his e.xperience he said in his 
last issue at lllue Earth City, that, "In that long period we have passed 
through all the scenes, oppositions and hardships of this life, without taking 
down our sign, or quailing before the fierce blasts that have sometimes crossed 
our path." Some of those blasts must have been quite severe, for in a paper 
which he subser|uently published, he says: "The best printing offlce we ever 
owned, lies, like John Brown, mouldering at the bottom of theOhio river— two 
burned at Beaver Dam, Wis., and one pretty well bricked up at Blue Earth 
City (Minn.), besides having sulTered in our person, in repeated instances, from 
the direct attack of the armed assassin." 

Mr. Huntington removed to Delavan, in this county, and in June, 1872, 
commenced the publication there of "The Delavan Bee." And this was the first 
paper published at Uelavan. He remained there until early in December, 1874, 
when he returned to Blue Earth City, with his press, and began the publication 
of "37it Bee." Here he continued to live until the time of his death. Mr. 
Huntington was a democrat in politics, until his arrival in this county, when 
he became a strong Union supporter, and thereafter, the papers which he pub- 
lished were largely repul)lican in political sentiment, Init still quite indepen- 
dent. Mrs. Huntington died at the home of her daughter, in Iowa, .September 
11th, 1888, and Mr. Huntington died January 6th, 1889, and was interred in the 
Blue Earth City cemetery. 

On the twelfth day of July, 1872, a special town meeting was 
held, for the purpose of appropriating, on behalf of the town, the 
sum of twenty three hundred dollars, toward as.sisting the county 
in erecting county buildings, at Blue Earth City. The vote was car- 
ried almost unanimously in favor of the proposition, and a court 
house was erected in the autumn, of that year. 

THE FIGHT FOR A RAILROAD. 

Well knowing the absolute necessity of railroads, in the rapid 
and profitable development of the county, and especially the build- 
ing of the villages, the citizens of Blue Earth City commenced, at an 
early day, the labor of securing a railroad. 

First. They first turned to the south. The Keokuk, Port Des 
Moines and Minnesota Railroad Company had been organized in 
Iowa, and commenced the work of building a road from Keokuk, on 
the Mississippi, up the Des Moines river, and looking in the direc- 
tion, it was alleged, of Mankato, in this State. A direct line would 
pass through Blue Earth City. This was away back in 1857. The 
company had a large land grant in Iowa. Much con-espondence 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 589 

was had, with the officers of the company, in relation to the build- 
ing of the road in this direction. The country was fully described, 
and the importance and feasibility of the route fully set forth. The 
prospect was bright, indeed, and the building of the road, into this 
county, seemed to be only a question of time. For years we worked 
and waited, filled with this glowing prospect. The project failed. 
Second. Then we turned to the east. The Southern Minne- 
sota Railroad Company was organized to build a road through the 
southern tier of counties, in this State. This was a great and hope- 
ful project. This was also a land grant company. As the grant 
was made in trust to the State, to be disposed of by the legislature, 
to that or some other company, the matter got into politics. Blue 
Earth City, and the south half of the county, as well as other local- 
ities, wanted the line of the road located through the several county 
seats of the counties, through which the road was to be built, and the 
company wished to be free to locate their route where they pleased. 
The result was some three or four political struggles of great inten- 
sity. Blue Earth City won the fight, so far as the political aspects 
of the contest were concerned, after the expenditure of much time 
and labor and money, but the victory was bootless, as the road was 
built on a more northern line. And this ended the second effort. 
This occurred in the years 1866, 1867 and 1868. 

Third. More than a year elapsed of comparative inaction, but 
still correspondence was kept up with railroad men in all directions, 
and especially with a company in Iowa, then building a road to Port 
Dodge. At length, near the close of 1869, the star of hope arose in 
the north. The St. Paul and Sioux City Railroad Company pro- 
posed to build a road from Mankato to the Iowa State line, via Blue 
Earth City, if aid should be voted by the townships along the line of 
the road, in the form of town bonds, to the amount of 'S200,000. Blue 
Earth City township, in January, 1870. voted $iO,000, and the ad- 
joining towns, various amounts, but a great deal of work was re- 
quired in canvassing the towns, calling meetings and publishing 
information on the subject. No time, labor or expense were spared. 
The aid, or bonds, asked were voted. All necessary arrangements 
were made, and it was thought a railroad was now certain. But 
alas! this effort, also, in the very hour of success, was blasted, and 
the effort added one more to the failures of the past. 

Pourth. Correspondence was still, however, kept up with com- 
panies building roads in this state and Iowa, with the hope of in- 
ducing some one of them to come this way, when at last, in the 
summer of 1870, hope dawned again in the southeast. The Burling- 
ton, Cedar Rapids & M. R. R. Co. came with a proposition to extend 
their road to Blue Earth City if aid in town bonds to the amount of 
$85,000 should be voted, forty acres of land for depot grounds se- 



690 HISTORY OF 

cured, and the right of way through the county. Again there was 
a calling of town meetings, canvassing of voters, publication of vari- 
ous documents, a vast amount of writing — in short, much time, 
labor and money expended. The aid was again voted, the depot 
grounds secured, and all things arranged. Now, indeed, a road 
was certain at last. Not quite. Just at this time a petty judge 
at St. Paul, decides, in relation to similar town bonds voted there, 
that towns cannot constitutionallj' vote such aid. The case is car- 
ried to the Supreme Court, where a year may elapse before a decis- 
ion can be had, and our railroad company gives up the project of 
building .the road. And now what V Every effort has but resulted 
in failure. 

Fifth. A year passes away without any definite hope or pros- 
pect, when, in the spring of 1873, cheering words again came from 
the north. The St. Paul and Sioux City R. R. Co. having made 
more certain arrangements, again proposed to build a road from 
Mankato, via Blue Earth City, to the Iowa State line, if $150,000 
aid should be voted by the towns on the route. Often beaten, but 
not wholly disheartened, the citizens of Blue Earth City went again 
to work, calling town meetings in the adjoining towns, canvassing, 
talking, arguing and distributing documents. It was in April, the 
mud was deep and roads almost impassable. It rained and snowed, 
people were suspicious and obstinate, and the prospects gloomy, but 
through all difficulties, the few who had charge of the matter at 
Blue Earth City worked on, and at last the aid was voted. All de- 
tails were again arranged, and we had every reason to believe that we 
should now get the road. But the reader may add number five to 
the failures that went before. 

Sixth. Time passes on, and in the year 1877 a new project is 
broached. A railroad company is formed in Martin county. A 
scheme of this company was to build a road from St. James. Waton- 
wan county, via Blue Earth City, to Ft. Dodge, in Iowa, on condi- 
tion of receiving aid similar to that so often voted before. The pro- 
ject was laid before the people of Blue Earth City and adjoining 
towns. A great deal of work had again to be done. The several 
towns approved, and contracts were entered into with the company 
Work on the line of road was commenced. Some seven miles o 
road, from Blue Earth City northwestward, in the direction of St 
James, were graded. Here, now was something tangible, substan 
tial, certain. But alas, it proved but "the baseless fabric of a vision." 

Besides all these greater efforts, other and minor projects for 
securing a road, engaged the attention of at least a portion of the 
people. Votes were taken, increasing or diminishing the amount of 
bonds already voted — time of building of road extended, railroad 
companies formed, various propositions submitted, and much writ- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, 3I1NNES0TA. 591 

ing done from time to time, not necessary to record here, until at 
last we arrived at the seventh and last great effort. 

Seventh. It was in 1878, that the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad 
Company came with their third proposition. It was accepted, town 
bonds were again voted, Blue Earth City giving 136,000. A part of 
the road was graded in that year. In 1879 the road was comple- 
ted from Lake Crystal in Blue Earth county, a point on the main 
line of the road, to Blue Earth City. The battle was won. We were 
connected with the great world by a railroad. A great jubilee 
was held at Blue Earth City in October, of the latter year, an ac- 
count of which is given elsewhere in this work. It was on the thir- 
tieth day- of September, at four o'clock, p. m., just before the road 
was completed to Blue Earth City, that the engine whistle was first 
heard on the streets of Blue Earth City, and was greeted with loud 
cheers and clapping of hands and the projection of hats into the air. 
And on the thirteenth day of October, at one o'clock, p. m , the first 
locomotive and cars entered upon the sacred soil of the village of 
Blue Earth' City, and was received by a multitude of cheering and 
rejoicing people. And here we rest. 

Some six men, residing at Blue Earth City, three of whom from 
the beginning, and the others uniting with them some years later, 
were the leading workers in all these efforts to secure a railroad for 
Blue Earth City. It would be invidious to mention their names, as 
they were always ably seconded by citizens in all the towns. But 
these more than any others, especially three of them labored on, 
through all discouragements, often reviled, suspicioned and belied, 
always giving their time and money, braving all opposition and de- 
feats, holding steadily on until the end was at last reached. The 
work they did, the money they gave and the perseverance they ex- 
ercised will never be fully known to those, who today enjoy the 
the fruit of their labors. 

POLITICAL AND OFFICIAL. 

Prior to the close of 1879, the last year of this sketch, Blue 
Earth City township, including the village, furnished to the public, 
legislative and county service, quite a number of servants. 

On the Board of County Commissioners, Walcefleld, Sailor, Kiester, John- 
son (Albin), Scott, Neal. Bonwell and Cary; Auditor, Bonwell; Register of 
Deeds, Hibler, Walcefleld, Kiester, Bonwell and Brown; Treasurers, Grout, 
Johnson (Albin), Kaupp; Superintendent of Schools, A. H. Pelsey; Clerics of 
Court, Jackson, Kingsley, J. K. Pratt, James C. Pratt, Neal; Judges of Pro- 
bate, Waliefleld, Knapp, Kiester; Coroners, Gillit, Rose, Young and Baloome; 
County Surveyors, Kimball and Kiester; County Attorneys, Wakefield, Knapp, 
Hyatt, Kiester and Sprout; Sheriffs, Constans, Pratt (M. B.), Cummings; 
Representatives in State Legislature, Wakefield, Kingsley, Kiester and Childs; 
State senators, Wakefield, Cbilds, Goodrich and Johnson (R. B.) 



592 U I STORY OF 



STATISTICAL. 



The population of the township was: In 1860, 317; in 1865, 807; in 1870, 
1121, in 1875, 1178: in 1880. 1686. These fl^rures Include the village. 

or stock and certain other property, in the town, in 1879, we find that of 
horses there were 513; cows. 536; other cattle, 630; mules, 6; sheep, 1158; hogs, 
613; wanons and carriaj;es, 206: scwinff machines, 74; organs, 28; pianos, 4. 

Auriculliiral productions for 187!), (estimated), in bushels: Wheat, 54,500; 
oats, 38,000; corn, 22,.500; barley, 3,040; potatoes, 3,200; syrup, 1,100 gals.; wild 
hay, 2,000 tons; apple trees, 2,100; apple trees, bearing, 800; butter, 28,500 lbs. 

The assessed value of real estate for 1879, was $323,486; personal estate 
$101, 38S): total, $424,875; the total tax assessed thereon, for that year, $10,031.86. 

The following list contains the names of many persons, not hereinbefore 
named, who were residents of the township or village prior to the close of 
1879. Alex. Anderson, John Anderson, W. Ackerman, A. W. Ackerman, Geo. 
Bates, Wm. H. Bates, E. Beaumont, G. W. Buswell, R. II. Bartholemew, 
Z. C. Butler, L. Botcher, F. P. Brown, L. W. Brown, Fred. Bemus, .S. Clark, 
F. E. Gary, C. II. Gary, Frank Gole, H. Cole, J. Cole, J. Conklin, C. W. 
Constans, J. H. Couper, S. CummiDgs. W. Clark, J. Casten, N. Ghadbourn 
S. P. Child, J. B. Coutier, H. C. Cheadle, F. Claude, F. W. Cady. C. Craig, 
L. Craig, S. Dutton, Wm. Dustin, J. D. Dayton, II. Doege, C. II. Dearborn, J. 
Dobson, G. S. Dobner, F. Dendon, J. A. Dean, N. Dustin, A. F. Eastman, E. D. 
Evans, .T. Emerson, Paul Flecken-tein, M. Fierky, J. Franklin, A. J. Franklin, 

B. Franklin, G. B. Franklin, D. F. Goodrich. H. Geise, A. Gartzke, G. Gartzke, 
Thos. Guckeen, C. C. Goodnow, J. Guckeen, Geo. Grifflth, S. W. Graham, D. 
Garrison. M. IIolTman, C Ilaase, G. Henke, E. J. Holley, J. fleintz, C. W. Hille- 
bert, N. L. IlefTron, Carr Huntington, C. F. Ilaynes, W.T. Ives, G. W.Johnson, 
H. G. Jones, R. B. Johnson, A. R. Johnson, Jud. Kellogg. O. Knapp, Wm. Krinke, 
Paul Krinke, Fred. Krinke, Aug. Krinke, M. Krinke, C. A. Kopplin, L. Krum, 
II. Kamrar, J. C. Kirschner, C. Klatt, G. Klatt, A. Kenitz, T. Kabe, E. 
Kuester, J. H. Lewis, W. B. Larrabee,S. Larrabee, G. D. Lake, A. B. Lind, Wm. 
H. Miller, F. W. Miller. F. D. Miller. A. Meyers, H. Meyers, S. T. McKnight, 
J.D.Moore, J. Manning, R. G. Merrill, C. Manske, R. McGinnis, J. D. Max- 
well, Wm. McGinnis, R. Morse, F. McGuire, L. N. Nichols, J. L. Ordway, Wm. 
Oelke, S. Pfeffer. W. H. PfelTer. L. Potter, Aug. Potter, Wm. Paschke, C. 
Paschke, H. Paschke, T. W. Pettit, M. B. Parker, W. E. Page, C. Pinkliam, 
E. Pulver, J. Pulver. J. C. Pratt, M. B. Pratt, C. Persick, B. PInkham, H. 
Raymond, W. J. C. Robertson, W. Rosenau, J. Rosenau, J. W. Rosenberg, R. 
W. Richards, F. A. Squires, J. W. Squires, F. Steffen, C. H. Slocum. Geo. 
Strong, M. A. Strong, Sam. Sailor, C. Stockman, J. D. Stanton, D. Stanton, 
Cady Stanton, H. N. Saxton, W. S. H. Smith, Fred, Schmidt, Jas. Shannon, J. 
Shuttleworth, M. Seivert, Peter Seivert, E. Summerfleld, Cor. Sullivan, Wm. 
Sinter, Jos. Schemek, S. Schuler, E. D. South, E. Schimmel, J. Summerfleld, 
J. M. Sutherland, John H. Sprout, Aug. Sasse, C. A. Sanger, G. A. Taylor, S. 
Teskey. W^m. Teskey, J. Tillia, I). B. Thurston, R. W. Teeter, W. Trumbell, R. 

C. Tremaln, G. W. Whallon, W. W. White, S. Warner, J. H. Warner, J. W. 
Warner, R. Waite, E. Willmert, L. Willmert, J. Werner, C. W. Weaver, F. 
Wllschnock, J. Weise, A. Weise, Ed. Wakefield, T. II. Webb, B. K. Whitney, 
J. C. WoodrulT, Geo. D. Winch, W. A. Way, H. A. Young, F. D. Yendis, H. D. 
Yendis. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 593 



CHAPTER XV 



JO DAVIESS TOWNSHIP. 

This town is congressional, or land survey township number 
one hundred and two (102) north, of range twenty-eight (28) west. 

It is bounded by the following townships in Faribault county: 
Verona on the north, Blue Earth City on the east. Pilot Grove on 
the south, and by Pleasant Pi-airie township, in Martin county, on 
the west. 

GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 

The mean elevation of this town above tide water is eleven hun- 
dred and fifty feet, and the depth of the drift here, to bed rock, 
probably, exceeds one hundred feet. The surface is correctly des- 
ignated as rolling prairie. The only streams of living water are the 
Badger Creek, and its tributaries. There are several small clear 
water lakes in this town, one known as Gorman lake, on sections 
seventeen and twenty, and Pilot Grove lake, which lies partly in 
this town on the south boundary, and also one or two others not 
named. Good water is easily obtained by digging or boring any- 
where, at moderate depths. There is no native timber in this town- 
ship, except what is found at Pilot Grove, on the south side of the 
town, but there are many fine artificial groves found in all parts of 
the township. The soil is very fertile and well adapted to all farm- 
ing and grazing purposes. 

It is proper here to state, that there is in this township, a large 
nursery of fruit and ornamental trees and shrubbery of all kinds, 
on the farm of John A. Dean, Esq., which nursery was started in 
1865, and enlarged from time to time, and always carefully attended. 
This was the first nursery of fruit trees started in the county. 

THE NAME. 

Having given this hurried description of the general physical 
aspects of this township, we now pass to a sketch of its history, and 
first, a few words as to the name. The town was first named John- 
son, by the special commissioners, in 1858, in honor of James and 
Alexander Johnson, two of the earliest settlers of the county, but 
not at that time residents of this town. It appearing, however, that 



594 HISTORY OF 

there was another township in the state of this name, the name was 
changed by the county board on the fourth day of January. 1B59. to Jo 
Daviess, on the suggestion of James L. McCrery, a member of the 
board, and resident of the town. And who was Jo Daviess, after 
whom this town was named? 

Joseph HaTiiiltnii Daviess, familiarly named "Jo Daviess,'' was a bold and 
linivo soldiiT, an able lawyer and an eloquent orator, who, in the early days of 
Kentucky, ranked with her most (,'ifled and honored names. He was born in 
Virginia, in 1774. When he was about five years old, his parents removed Uj 
the wilds of Kentucky. Subsefiuently, while still in his early youth, he was 
placed under the care of competent tutors, and obtained a classical education. 
He studied law under the direction of one of the ablest jurists of his day— Geo. 
Nicholas— and became as-ociated in the profession with such men as Felix 
(.rundy, Bledsoe, Talbut, Pope— all men eminent in their time. In 1801 he ap- 
peared before the Supreme Court of the United States, though then but twen- 
ty-eifht years of ajje, and ar^'ued a iireat cause before that able tribunal, with 
marvelous ability and eloi|uence, and won his case. In 1803 he was ruarrie.i to 
the sister of Chief Justice John Marshall. He was subsequently appointed 
United Slates District Attorney for the State of Kentucky. But Daviess was 
also a soldier, and as such, took an active part in the border wars of his time, 
with the Indians. He was in a trreat number of famous lights, and finally fell 
in the bloody and wonderful battle of Tippecanoe. The memory of Jo Daviess 
is still treasured in Kentucky, as that of one of h(?r noblest and bravest sons. 
He was somewhat eccentric in his habits, and usually wore the style of cloth- 
ing common among the western hunters — a coonskin cap, homespun frock coat 
and belt, buckskin breeches and moccasins, but all of the best materials, and 
neatly fitting. There is a county in Indiana, one in lUiuois, one in Missouri, 
and one in Kentucky named Jo Daviess. 

FIRST SETTLEMENT. 

The first actual or permanent settler of this township was James 
L. McCrery. 

Mr. McCrery came to this county in 1855. and took a claim. 
But this claim was "jumped," using the elegant language of that 
day, or in other words, the land was settled upon and claimed by 
another person, as Mr. McCrei-y had left the land and returned to 
Iowa temporarily. In the spring of 1856 he returned with his family 
to this county, and on or about the tenth day of May of that year, 
located in this town. 

Mr. McCrery was born in Kentucky, emigrated at an early day 
to Indiana, from thence to Franklin county. Iowa, and from the 
latter place to this town. He was quite a prominent and inlluential 
man in the earlier years of the county. He held various town offices, 
and was for some time a member of the county board. In politics 
he was a democrat. He held the office of justice of the peace for a 
number of years, during which time he did most of the justice court 
business in the south half of the county. He removed to the state 
of Nebraska some years ago, where he has since died. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 595 

The following table presents the names of all the residents of 
the town in June, 1860, as appears from the rolls of the national 
census of that year: 

Bcidijig— Walter D., Mrs. Sarah, Clara, Eva, Aretas, Henry. C/tM<e— Bur- 
ton, Mrs. Harriet, Melissa, Alonzo, Ensley, Isaac. Peresa, Oliver, Lavinia, 
William. G'rccr— Thomas F., Mrs. Sarah, Mark, Margaret, Laura, John. Qor- 
wiftH— Patrick, Mrs. Mary, Edward, Ann, Sarah. Hudson— Vy.'A.umm. Little — 
David, Mrs. Mary. JfcCrec)/— James L., Mrs. Marine, Eobert, James, Aaron, 
Elizabeth, Martha, William, Cynthia, Joseph. i>'miJ/i— Aretas, Mrs. Mercy, 
Josiah. ryitre— John. 

None of these persons are now residents of the town, except 
Burton Chute and a part of his family, the others having died or 
removed, and Mr. Chute is entitled to the honorable designation of 
the patriarch of Jo Daviess. 

ORGANIZATION. 

This town was attached, for civil purposes, to the township of 
Pilot Grove, by the special commissioners, in 1858, and so remained 
until January 7th, 1864, when it was detached by the county com- 
missioners. The first town meeting was held at the house of W. B. 
Belding, January 26th, 1864, when officers were elected, and the town 
organized. 

The board of town officers for the year 1879, was composed of 
the following named residents of the town: Supervisors, C. C. 
Briggs, chairman, L. Y. Bobbins and W. R. Winn; town clerk, L. 
L. Coutier. Mr. Coutier had been clerk for nine previous years. 
Assessor, W. H. Behse; treasurer, E. Nash; justices of the peace, 
L. L. Coutier and W. H. Behse; constables, G. Rockwell and J. 
Neitzal. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

The first school-house erected in this town was built in the fall of 
1859. It was a very small, cheap log house, and was known as the 
"Belding School-house." Sometime afterwards it was superse- 
ded by a very cheap frame building, near the same site, and this 
was succeeded, in 1867, by a good frame house, on the same lo- 
cation. Another school-house was erected, at an early day, in the 
north part of the town, and was known as the "Pezler School-house. " 
Miss Melissa Chute, it is said, was the first school teacher in this 
township. She taught a school here in 1859. There are now four 
good school- houses in the town, all well finished and well furnished. 

RELIGIOUS. 

On June 14th, J 868, a society of Seventh Day Adventists was 
organized in the town by Elders Ingraham and Pierce. Other reli- 
gious societies were formed here also, at an early day, and held 
public worship in the school-houses. The Belding school-house was 
for a number of years quite a noted place for the assembling of reli- 
gious bodies. 



596 mSTOItY OF 

SUNDRY INCIDENTS. 

As to bounties given to encourage enlistments during the war 
of the rebellion, the reader is referred to the historical sketch of Pilot 
Grove township, for both towns then constituted the town district. 

The town voted bonuses many times to aid in the building of 
railroads, none of which proved of any use, until the last vote. 

Prior to the closing year of this sketch, this township had 
furnished to the public service, two county commissioners, J. L. 
McCrery and J. A. Dean, and a county surveyor, J. A. Dean. 

In the years 1873 and 1874, the crops in this town were almost 
entirely destroyed by grasshoppers, which caused much distress and 
discouragement, and compelled many of the people to remove from the 
town to procure a living, and this fact accounts for the great de- 
crease in population between the years 1870 and 1875. 

As illustrating the terrible destruction of crops here in 1874, 
we quote the following statement from the Blue Earth City Post of 
January 9th, 1875. The whole town was carefully canvassed, and 
the following result was obtained. 

Number of acres sown lo whoat, 1,407; number of bushels of wheat sown, 
2,400; number of bushels harvested, (iOl; number of acres sown to oats, 560: 
number of bushels of oats sown, 1,5C3; number of bushels of oats harvested, 
3,482; number of acres planted to corn, 535; number of bushels gathered, 3,020: 
average yield of wheat per acre in pounds, 25; average yield of oats per acre in 
bushels, a fraction over 6: average yield of corn per acre in bushels about 5». 

Add to this the destruction of other crops, in about the same pro- 
portion, and some idea may be formed of the damages done. 

Blue Earth City is the principal railroad and trading point for 
this town, but for the northern portion of the town, Huntley and 
Winnebago City are also convenient. 

SOME FIGURES. 

The population of the town in 1860 was 44; in 1865, 241: in 1870, 477: in 1875, 
310; in 1880, 373. The population is mainly American and Irish. 

The assessor's returns for 187!) show that there were in the town in that 
year, 217 horses, 306 cows, 295 other cattle, 5 mules, 524 sheep, 271 hogs, 59 
wagons and carriages, 21 sewing machines and 4 organs. The assessed value of 
real estate for that year was $140,1.57; personal property, $17,025; total, $157,782. 
The total amount of tax assessed for the same year, $2,517. There was pro- 
duced in the town in 1879, of wheat, 13,000 bu.; of oats, 37,000 bu.; of corn, 
31.000 bu.; of potatoes, 2,300 bu.: of barley, 1,500 bu.: sorghum syrup, 2,400 gal- 
lons: nax seed, 166 bu.; apple trees growing, 1,6,30: wool, 2,600 pounds: butter, 
30,000 pounds; total acreage cultivated, ,3,200. 

Now here is a second roll of honor, embracing the names of 
many residents of the town, prior to the close of 1879, many of whom 
have not yet been named in this sketch. 

a. W. Adair, P. Allen, W. D. Belding, A. Bork, C. C. Barber, E. C. Barnes, 
F. Barnes, C. C Briggs, A. R. Brockett, R. IT. Barker, Jonathan Burgess, A. 
Bonwell, J. Burgess, W. II. Behse, Jas.Brownlee.T.Corbett, W.Cummings, Wm. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 597 

Child, S. Cook, L. L. Coutier, A. W. Childs, Burton Chute, A. C. Champney, 
T. Collintrs, M. Corcoran, P. Driscoll, G. W. Dunn, J. D. Dayton, J. A. Dean, 
Geo. Ellis, R. M. Esseltyne, P. B. Fezzler, Benoni Fortner, E. R. Gorman, P. 
Gorman, Ed. Gorman, John Gorman, Jas. Gorman, T. W. Getchell, I. F. Green, 
Patrick Guckeen, B. Hall, S. M. Hawes, L. Harmon, J. Hope, M. J. Haddeman, 
W. T. Ives, A. Jennings, Fred. Jennings, R. James, C. W. Jones, Matthew Kel- 
ley, Jud. Kellogg, J. Kennedy, Cor. J. Kennedy, John Merrick, H. McDonald, 
A. McDonald, F. H. McNerny, J. H. Mackey, P. McDermott, Jas. McDonald, P. 
Murphy, Wm. Murphy, R. A. Merrill, Elbert Nash, Henry Nutter, W. W. Nut- 
ter, J. S. Nutter, H. H. Nutter, J. A. Neitzel, E. M. Owen, A. Peterson, Thos. 
Pettit, E. Petti ngill, V. Perham, D. E. Perrine, John Russell, Geo. Rector, L. 
Y. Robbins, Geo. Rockwell, II. Robinson, E. Sailor, Daniel Sailor, W. G. South, 
II. Snyder, G. L. Skinner, Wm. Smith, Geo. Saunders, Fred. Swingdorf, F. J. 
Swingdorf, Wm. Underbill, S. Wagner, Wm. R. Winn, H. D. Wise, C. Wallace, 
Samuel Yetter, H. D. Yendis. 

The town is now being rapidly settled up, and its fertile lands 
improved, and at no distant day it will rank with the best townships 
of the county. 



CHAPTER XVL 



PILOT GROVE TOWNSHIP. 

This is congressional township one hundred and one (101) north, 
of range twenty-eight (28) west. It is the southwest township of 
the county, and is bounded on the north by the town of Jo Daviess; 
east, by Elmore township; south, by the State line; west, by the 
Martin county line. 

PHYSICAL FEATURES. 

The surface of this township averages eleven hundred and 
eighty feet above sea level, but there is one locality, in the town, 
which is twelve hundred and fifty feet, being among the highest 
lands in the county. Moraiuic hills appear along the southern 
boundary of the town. 

The drift here is probably considerably over one hundred feet 
in depth, to bed rock. The flowing artesian well, on the Winch 
farm, on section eight, reported to be one hundred feet in depth, did 
not reach bed rock. The Winch well flowed for some four years, 
and ceased in 1879. A well sunk on section twenty, in 1880, to a 
depth of seventy feet, proved, also, a flowing well. It is quite evi- 
dent, from these facts, that these valuable flowing fountains may 
easily be obtained in this township. 

The general surface of the land is rolling prairie. The heads of 
Badger creek, in the north part of the town, and Otter creek, in tlie 
south half, and a small branch of the Blue Earth, are the only run- 



598 HlSTOIiY OF 

ning waters in the town. These streams are tributaries of the west 
branch of the Blue Earth river. There are, however, several 
small slough runs, which are considerable streams during parts 
of the year. There are, also, several small, but beautiful, silvery 
lakes in the town, known as Big lake. Pilot Grove lake, Weazel 
lake and Farlow lake, the latter named after one L. Farlow, a trap- 
per, who, in the early years, trapped about these lake, for furs. 

The timber, of which there is but little, is confined to the mar- 
gins of these lakes. The grove known as Pilot Grove is the princi- 
pal body of timber. The farmers of this town, also, have done a 
good work, in setting out many groves of forest trees, and the land- 
scape presents much the appearance of a wooded country, and the 
people are every year adding to the number of these beautiful 
groves. The whole township should, and doubtless some daj' will 
be, in fact, as well as in name, largely a grove. The lands are well 
divided into tillable and pasturage, and the soil is as good as any in 
the State. The surface is easily drained. Good well water is found 
anywliere at moderate depth. 

THE NAME. 

The town was named Pilot Grove bj' the special commissioners 
in 1858, and was so named because of the fine grove of native timber 
on the northern boundary of the town, and this grove was named 
Pilot Grove, because in the early days, before roads were established, 
this grove was a sort of land mark, on the wide prairies, by which the 
immigrant was piloted on his way westward. It may be added, too, 
that this grove, with its fine lake of sparkling waters and rich 
grasses surrounding it, was, in the days of the immigrants, a sort of 
capacious inn, or caravansary, or camping ground. There are 
live post offices in the United States which bear the name of Pilot 
Grove. 

FIRST .SETTLEMENT. 

Gilbert McClure was the first settler of Pilot Grove township. 
He located here in June, 1856, upon the west half of the northwest 
quarter of section two, and lots one and two in section three. Mr. 
McClure was born in Scotland. He came to the United States in 
1852, and settled in the state of New York. Prom thence he removed 
to Lake county, Indiana, and from the latter place he came to this 
county. Mr. McClure is by occupation a brickmaker and farmer. 
During the summer of 1857, he and his brother Hugh, who is also 
an old resident, made some thirty thousand excellent brick in the 
town. 

On the eighteenth day of June, 1858, there came into this town 
a company of immigrants, all Scotch people, consisting of twenty- 
three persons, with their ox teams, covered wagons and a small drove 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 599 

of cattle. These immigrants were Archibald Cardell, David Ogilvie, 
Andrew R. More and James Ogilvie and their respective families. 
They had come from the state of Wisconsin, through many tribula- 
tions of mud and high waters, to this new land to find homes. They 
camped on the banks of Weasel lake, and on the next day, the men 
went with a Mr. Hinckly to Chain Lakes, in Martin county, to in- 
spect the country, but they returned here in three or four days and 
determined to locate in this town, and accordingly proceeded to se- 
lect their lands. In a few days they removed their wagons and 
stock to the point of Tarr's Grove, near by, and here established a 
permanent camp. 

Owing to the want of roads to the timber, the high waters of 
that year (that was the wet year) and the impassable sloughs, they 
did not get up a cabin to live in, until about September, but in the 
mean time, lived in their wagons and tents, as best they could. 
While yet living in this patriarchal way and only four days after 
then arrival, to-wit: June 22d, the first children were born in the 
town. On that day was born to David and Mary Ogilvie, a pair of 
twins. They were named Alexander and Mary. Alexander died, 
when about two years old. Mr. Ogilvie and his companions had 
come to a new country, the great demand of which was settlers. To 
multiply and replenish the earth, was one of the ways to supply the 
demand. It may be remarked that these people do not now live in 
covered wagons, or even tents, but that long since large and con- 
fortable farm houses and barns, wide spreading cultivated fields, 
large herds and droves of improved stock, and an abundance of all 
the comforts and conveniences of life are the rewards of their labor 
and thrift, while their descendants are numerous, and have taken up 
and improved much of the lands in the vicinity of the old home- 
steads. Having mentioned the first births in the town we may also 
speak of the first death, being in the order of dates. The first death 
occurred in October, 1858, when Mrs. McClure, the mother of 
Gilbert McClure died, at the advanced age of seventy-three. She 
had come from her native Scotland, and the home and friends of her 
youth to lay her bones in this new and strange land. But the 
promise is, that in the blessed home of the hereafter, there are no 
boundaries of nations, or distances of separation, and the well 
grounded hope is, that all the redeemed shall be united, to part no 
more forever. Though dying so far from her native land, it is still 
true, that it is no farther from the earthly home in Pilot Grove, to 
the gates of paradise, than it is from the lowlands, or highlands of 
Scotland, or any other land under the sun. 

The following list presents the names of all the residents of 
the town in June, 1860, according to the census rolls, with the ex- 
ception of two or three persons, who were absent at the time. 



600 nisTonv of 

Can1eU—ATch\\i:i\t\. Mrs. Anna, .lames, John. A/cCTurc— Gilbert. McClure— 
Margaret. Jtfo/-t— Andrew U., Mrs. .lanette, Robert, Janet te, Christina, Andrew, 
James, Marian, Thomas. 0(/i7t'i'( -James, Mrs. Ellen, Davirl, Robert, Isabel, Mary. 
OytVfic-David, ,Sr., Mrs. Mary, Akmu's, Julia, Mary. Alexander. 

And these are they to whom history must atcord the honor of 
being the old settlers of Pilot Grove. 

ORGANIZATION. 

The township of Jo Daviess was attached to the town of Pilot 
Grove, for town purposes, by the special commissioners, in 1858. The 
first town meeting of the joint towns was held at the house of Jas. 
L. McCrery, on the twentieth day of October, 1858, at which time 
the town district was organized by the election of officers. Mr. Mc- 
Crery was elected chairman, and A. R. More and James Ogilvie, side 
supervisors, and A. Cardell, clerk. The two towns were separated by 
the county commissioners, on the seventh day of January. 18fi4, and 
each started on an independent career. The ofiicial town records 
of this township, covering the period from the organization to the 
year 1865, inclusive, are lost. It appears that the records of these 
earlier years were kept on separate sheets of paper, and not in a 
bound book, as should have been the fact, and they have now disap- 
peared forever. This fact is much to be regretted by the historian, 
as these records would have, at least, given the action of the town 
on various subjects — military bounties, for instance, and the names 
of town officials. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

The first school-house in the town was a small log building, 
erected about the year 1859, on lands of James Ogilvie, and was 
known as the "Ogilvie Schcolhouse." This building was used for 
several years, when a new and better structure was erected, known 
as the "More School house." There are now four substantial frame 
school-houses in the town. Mrs. .lennette Silliman (then Miss 
More), daughter of A. R. More, taught the first school in the town, 
in the summer of 1859. 

RELIGIOUS. 

The Presbyterians have for many years had a flourishing society 
here, and regular services. The society was organized in 1860 or 
1861. The Free Will Baptists organized a congregation here in May, 
1869. There was a Sabbath school organized in this town as early 
as the spring of 1859, which still continues, and is probably the old- 
est Sunday school in the county. It appears that there was a Sun- 
day school instituted in Winnebago City township a little earlier 
than the Pilot Grove school, but did not long survive. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 601 

SUNDRY INTERESTING FACTS. 

The first marriage in the town was that of Silas B. Howland to 
Margaret McClui'e, which occurred on the fourteenth day of Octo- 
ber. 1858. 

The people of this town, like all others residing on the frontiers, 
became greatly apprehensive of an attack by the Indians, at the 
time of the great massacre in 1862. They held a number of meet- 
ings, when plans of defense were discussed. A military company 
was formed, of which James Ogilvie was commissioned first lieuten- 
ant, and the company was drilled by Sergeant Shepard Young, the 
only old soldier in the company. 

The roster of this company was made up of the following names: 
Henry Eversou. Archibald Cardell, David Ogilvie, James Ogilvie, 
Shephard Young, John Young, J. L. McCreiy, R. R. McCrery, 
James McCrery, Aaron McCrery, Thos. Wilson, Sr., and John Wil- 
son, Sr., and perhaps several others. But on the fifth day of Sep 
tember, it was resolved to leave the country, and on the next day 
the Pilot Grove settlement was deserted. 

The people went to Blue Earth City, where preparations were 
made for defense in the erection of a fort, and here they remained 
for about a week, when they returned to their homes. Still it was a 
long time before they felt much confidence in their safety. 

This township has also endeavored to encourage the building of 
railroads, into the county, by voting of aid, in form of bonds. None 
of the "bonuses'" voted were of any avail, except those lasi given, 
in 1878. 

During the war of the Rebelion, liberal bounties were granted 
to soldiers who should enlist and be credited to the town district — 
this town and Jo Daviess being then attached. , It appears, from the 
town records of Jo Daviess, that on the twenty-third day of Decem- 
ber, 1863, the board of the joint towns resolved to give a bounty of 
§50, and that on August 17th, 1864, though the towns were then 
separate, the boards of the two towns had a joint meeting, and re- 
solved to give a bounty of $500 to each soldier enlisting, as above 
stated. We find also that subsequent to this, but the date is not 
given, the joint boards resolved to levy a tax of $2,900, and on the 
sixth of May, 1865, they resolved to levy a tax of $3,025 to pay vol- 
unteer bounties. On September 22d, 1866, they resolved to levy a 
tax of $206. to pay expenses of exempts (as see general history 
of the year 1865), and also resolved to raise $1,912 to pay off the 
balance of bounty bonds, issued in 1861. A number of joint meet- 
ings were held, during the following years, in relation to the pay- 
ment of the bounty bonds, but the details are of no interest at this 
day. 



602 BISTOIIV OF 

The grasshopper ravages in this town, during the years 1873 
and 1874, were very serious, amounting, in the latter year, to an 
almost total destruction of the crops. An inspection of the state- 
ment, as to the losses from this cause, given in the sketch of Jo 
Daviess, will give the reader some idea of the destruction wrought 
in this town. 

Many of the people were considerably in debt, and their situa- 
tion, for some years, very distressing. Some were compelled to re- 
move, temporarily, from the town, to procure a living, and this fact 
accounts for the decrease of the population, for a short period, as 
appears by the census. 

There has. for some years, been a post-office in this town, named 
Pilot Grove, but no village, and the principal trading point of the 
town has always been at Blue Earth City, but since the building of 
the North and South railroad, another convenient shipping and 
market town, esjiecially for the people of the southern portion of 
this township, is found at the village of Elmore. 

Prior to the close of this sketch, 187'J. this township had fur- 
nished to the jjublic service, a member of the Board of County Com- 
missioners, A. R. More, Sr., for six years, three of which he was 
chairman, and a member of the State legislature, al.so Mr. More. 

HON. ANDREW R. MORE. SR. 

Mr. Moro was born on the twent.y-flrst clay of .Tune, 1813, in the town of 
llainilton, Lanarkshire, Scotlanrl. His father was a cambric weaver by trade 
Mr. More received his education in the common and Krarumar schools of his 
district. He learned the trade of lace printer, and worl<ed at the same for 
about Ufteen years. 

He connected himself with the Presbyterian church at the age of eighteen, 
and has remained a member of that denomination all his life, and in later 
years, since coming to this country, lias often been one of the representatives of 
his conprcgation in the prcsbytrii's and synods of the church, and in 1873 at- 
tended the national assembly which was h<-ld in Baltimore, Md. He was one 
of thote who assisted in the organization of the church at Blue Earth City, and 
was chosen an elder. He also assisted in instituting the church society and 
Sunday .school at Pilot Grove. 

Mr. Mori' was married in October, 1838, to Miss Jcanette A. Weir, of the 
town of Haiuilton, Scotland. Thiy have had .seven children, four sons and 
thri'c daughters. 

He came to America in the yearl850, and located in Waukesha county, Wis- 
consin* where h<' remained two years, and then removed to Jefferson county, 
in the same state, where he remained tlve years. During his residence in Wis- 
consin, be was engagrd in farming, but did not buy any land. In the spring of 
1858 he came to this county, and located in this town with the company abovr 
spoken of. His location here was with the design of getting a permanent honn- 
for himself and family, and lands for his children. He has always been ingaged 
in farming since risiding here. Among other farming opi'rations, he has al- 
ways taki'n a great interest in bees, and was one of the organizers of our Bee 
Keepers' society. He has also been greatly interested in the planting and 
growth of fruit trees. 




A. K. MORE, SK. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 603 

Mr. More, since being; a resident of this county, has been a republican in 
politics. He has held the office ot town cleric, was often chairman of the town 
board, and frequently town treasurer, and was justice of the peace five terms. 
He was also a member of the board of county commissioners, and of the state 
legislature, as above stated. 

As illustrating the emoluments received by officers in the early days of the 
county, it may be stated that while Mr. More was justice of the peace, he 
married one couple, and was to receive for his fee, the services of the gentleman 
married, in taking a grist to the mill for Mr. More. This agreement was carried 
out. In another case the fee was to be a bag ot "taters," but the "titers" 
were never delivered. In the matter of law suits, Mr. More, instead of encour- 
aging litigation, spent much timi' in trying to settle the disputes of his 
neighbors, without fee or reward, and generally succeeded. 

A PAGE OP FIGURES. 

By the census of 1860, there were twenty-seven inhabitants in the town all 
told. In 1865, 175; in 1870, 390; in 1875, .329; in 1880, 324. The Scotch and Irish 
are the predominating nationalities. 

There was in the town in 1879, the following stoclv, etc.: horses, 167: cows, 
315; other cattle, 333; mules, 5; sheep, 152; hogs, 378; wagons and carriages, 37; 
sewing machines, 20. Assessed value of real estate in 1879, $125,431; assessed 
value of personal estate in 1879, $15,678. Total, $141,109. Total tax assessed 
thereon for the year, $2,740.74. 

It was estimated, but how accurately, the writer will not venture to say, 
that there was produced in the town in 1879, of wheat, 18,000 bushels; oats, 40,- 
000 bushels; corn, 36,000 bushels; potatoes, 2,500 bushels; barley, 1,000 bu.shels; 
sorghum syrup, 2,800 gallons; flax seed, 190 bushels, wool, 2,100 pounds; butter, 
35,000 pounds. 

TOWN OFFICERS. 

The following named citizens of the town, were the township 
officers for 1879. Supervisor, W. P. Strong, chairman, A. Hanson 
and C. Johnson; town clerlt, D. McLeod, who had held the office 
during four previous years; treasurer, E. Howley; assessor, J. 
Wilson, Jr.; justices', M. Donovan and D. Buggy. 

A list of residents of the town prior to tlie closing year of this 
sketch, 1879, some of whom have not been named heretofore in this 
record of the town. All cannot now be given. 

R. J. Atkins, H. Baldwin, Wm. Baldwin, Denis Buggy, A. Cardell, Jas. 
Cardell, Jas. Cardell, Jr., J. Connor, Patrick Carr, .Jno. Carr, J. Cook, S. Cory, 
S. M. Deruaree, Dan. Donovon, Dennis Donovon, M. Donovon, J. H. Deline, 
W. T. Deline, Wm. Dunn, Dan. Dunn, Thos. Dunn, C. Decker, M. Dullard, 
S. Everson, B. Everson, J. Gee. Ed. Howley, Pat. Hamil, M. Hanson, Wm. 
Hunter, J. C. Hill, C. Jenson, Chris. S. Johnson, A. R. More, Robt. More, Jas. 
More, G. D. Moore, R. Mackey, Ed. Moon, O. McLaughlin, Daniel McLeod, 
Gilbert McClure, Hugh McCIure, A. Nelson, David Ogilvie, James Ogilvie, R. 
A. Ogilvie, G. W. Pugsley, David Pugsley, Jasper Pugsley, Hans. Peterson, 
Levi Shabins, P. Simser, L. Stiles, F. Schilling, Wm. F. Strong, Hugh Scott, 
Jackson Scott, Wm. Scott, W. B. Sillinian, Justus Sawvain, W. Shaver, P. 
Shaver, P. Wickwire, Thomas Wilson, Wm. Wilson, Robt. Wilson, John Wilson, 
C. F. Wallace, Pitt Wilson, L. P. Wingett, Norm. Woolery, Milo Woolery, 
Jas Wilson, T. R. Wilson, J. N. Woolery, M. Wooley. 



604 HISTORY OF 



(11 A ITER XVII. 



ELMORE TOWNSHIP. 

This township is comprised of congressional town one hundred 
and one (101) north, of range twenty-seven (L'7) west. It is bounded 
on the north by Blue Earth City township.on the east by Rome town- 
ship, on the south by the state of Iowa, and on the west by the town 
of Pilot Grove. 

PHYSICAL CHAUACTERISTICS. 

The mean elevation of this town above sea level, is eleven hun- 
dred and sixty feet, but there is a rise of ground near the south line 
of the town which is twelve hundred and fifty feet. The depth of 
the drift here to bed rock, is doubtless considerably over one hundred 
feet. A well of eighty-one feet in depth, showed soil, two feet; 
yellow till, eighteen feet; harder blue till, sixty feet; coarse gravel, 
one foot, from which water rose eighty feet, reaching to within one 
foot of the surface. Along the south side of the town, a width of 
territory from one to one and a half miles, is hilly, or prominently 
rolling drift. The general surface of the town is rolling prairie,easily 
drained. Its water courses are the west branch of the Blue Earth 
river, the middle branch of Coon creek and Otter creek, and these 
streams are mainly well timbered, and owing to the peculiar distri- 
bution of the sti'eams. living water and timber are convenient to 
most parts of the town. Most of the lands are tillable and of the 
best quality, for general cultivation. Good water is easily obtained 
everywhere by digging or boring to a very moderate depth. This 
town, in its general physical features, is a highly favored one, and 
it is becoming still better from year to year, as the fine groves and 
lines of forest trees planted by the people and appearing every- 
where, grow to maturity. 

THE EARLY SETTLEMENT. 

Crawfoi-d W. Wilson, was the first actual settler of this town. 
He first came to this county in August, 185.'). In November of that 
year, he brought in his family, and on the seventeenth of the month 
settled upon and claimed the northwest quarter of section eight. 
Mr. Wilson was born in Wayne county, Ohio. .July 27th. 1835. In 



FARIBAULT COUNTY. MINNESOTA. 605 

the spring of 1850 he emigrated to Iowa, and from thence to Minne- 
sota, as above stated. He was a farmer by occupation, but engaged 
at various times in merchandising, dealing in cattle and other occu- 
pations. He was for many years quite a prominent citizen of the 
county, and at one time one of its wealthiest. For a considerable 
time he was a justice of the peace, and was one of our county com- 
missioners in the early years of the county. In 1872 he removed 
with his family into Iowa. 

The following list comprises the names of all the residents of 
this town in June, 1860, when the national census was taken. A 
hasty glance over the list, reveals the fact that but few of those who 
were inhabitants of the town at that time, are to be found there now. 
"Dead, or I'emoved," are the words echoed back to the question, 
'•where are they now?" 

^rffUHs— AloDzo, Mr.s. Irene and Amanda, Emily, Lucy. iJowcn— A bij ah, 
Mrs. Ruth. C/icstei/— Philip, Mrs. Eudoxsia and Esther, Hiram, William, 
Amanda, Milton, Mrs. Magdalene. Cmuiru/ — William. Cowing — Thomas. 
Campbell— J nvaes, Mrs. Catharine and William. HiU—Un, Mrs. Renette and 
Idella. ifayyiii— Greenberry, Mrs. Sarah and Richard, Elvira, Greenberry. 
Hamaijton—Phehe. Harrington— Charles. Little— Ahmzo, Mrs. Jane and Albert, 
Emeline. if(mp?)!a)i— Casper, Mrs. Caroline and David, Freeland, Elizabeth, Fos- 
ter, Jordan. McArthur— Geo. D., Mrs. Anna. Mclnty re— John. lfon-i.s— Archibald, 
Mrs. Electa and William, Charles, Robert, Lewis, Harriet, Mary, George. Pres- 
ton—Amos. Mrs. Maria and Sheridan, Alida, Cieora, Wayland, Augustus, 
Augusta. ^'cftneicZer— Sarah, Mrs. Freeman, Lorenzo, Rhoda, Mary, Franklin, 
Harriet. 67(u;Us —Allen, Mrs. Elizabeth and Alida. Wa?/— Marshall, Mrs. 
Georgiana and Hugh, Norwood, Charles. IFooto-y— Henry, Mrs. Mary and 
Reuben, Robert, Lucinda, Sarah. Wickwire — Philander. Wheeler— Michael. 
Wehster—Or]nvf, Mrs. Leanner and Monroe, Inez, Izora, William, John. Wilson 
—Crawford W., Mrs. Susan and Mary, Elizabeth. 

There were several other old settlers, of this town, who, although their 
names do not appear on the foregoing lists, should not be forgotten. Among 
those are the names of Jacob L. Schneider, John Haggin, Zac Haggin, Dubois 
Tooker. 

The following table exhibits the wealth of the town, as appears 
by the census of 1860. It has vastly improved since that day. 

Acres of improved land, 377; value of farms, $10,100; value of farm imple- 
ments and machinery, $890; number of horses, 34; milch cows, 34; working 
oxen, 20; other cattle, 40; swine, 49; value of live stock, $5,203. 

THE NAME. 

This town was first named "Dobson," in honor of one James 
Dobson, by the special commissioners, in 1858. 

Mr. Dobson was born in Indiana, emigrated to Iowa in 1855, 
and from thence to Minnesota, in April, 1856, and took his "claim" 
in this town, a few days afterward. He was a farmer by occupa- 
tion, and continued to reside in the town for many years, but lately 
removed from the town to a new locality. 



606 HISTOnV OF 

The name of the town was changed to •Elmore" by act of the 
legislature of 1B62. The town was so named in honor of Andrew E. 
Elmore, a distinguished citizen of the state of Wisconsin, and a life 
long friend of several early settlers and prominent citizens of the 
town. 

ANDREW E. ELMORE. 

Mr. Elmore was boni in UIsUt county, New York, May 8th, 1814, and came 
west in iho yHarl8.«i, and settled at Mukwonago, Waukesha county, then a part 
of Milwaukee county, Wiscon.sin. 

Ileiuarried Miss Mary Field, dau^'liter of Ilnn. Steiihen Field, of Walworth 
counly, Wisconsin, in 1841, and they liave had I'dur children. 

At Mukwonago, Mr. Elmore engaged, for many years, in the mercantile 
business, and was. for some years, postmaster of that, place. Mr. Wm. S. Drake, 
now a resident of this county, was for some time a partner with Mr. Elmore, in 
business of merchandising. In 1842 hi' was elected to the Wisconsin territorial 
lesislalure, for Milwaukee and Washington counties, and served two years as 
such meralier. He was also a member of the llrst constitutional convention, in 
in 184e, and was a member of the assembly in the sessions of 1869 and I8C0 He 
was, for twelve years, chairman of the board of county supervisors of Wau- 
kesha county. 

In 1864 he removed to Green Bay. Brown county, Wisconsin. From this 
place he removed to Fort Howard, Wisconsin, in 1868, where he has since 
resided Mr. Elmore has been a member of the State board of charities and 
reform, from its organization, in Aiiril, 1871, and is now, and has been for the 
past ten years, its president, a highly honorable ollice. Mr. Elmore received a 
good common school and busini.'ss education, but is essentially a self-made man. 
He is a diligent reader, and a close observer of public affairs, and has always 
taken a large interest in public enterprises. He is a man of positive convic- 
tions and opinions, energetic and prompt, and is one whose intluence is felt in 
the community. He has long been known, among his friends, as "The Sage of 
Mukwonago,"' at which place he resided twenty-tlve years. 

There is a county, in the state of Alabama, named Elmore, and 
there are seven post offices in the United States of this name. 

ORGANIZATION. 

The town was organized for civil purposes in 1858, Amos Pres- 
toa being elected the first chairman of the board of supervisors. At 
the time of the organization, the town of Campbell, now Rome, was 
attached to this town, and so remained until Januaiy. 1868. when the 
latter town was set off by the county commissioners. The town 
officers for 1878-9 were: supervisors, A. Shultis. chairman, M. Nau- 
man and J. McCoy; town clerk, H. A. Woolery. Mr. Woolory had 
been clerk for nine preceding years. Treasurer. S. N. Cahoon; 
assessor, S. H. Norton; justices of the peace. Jas. Hardie and S. H. 
Norton; constable, H. Pratt. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

The first school-house in the town was erected in the spring of 
1858, on the southwest quarter of section seventeen, and was known 




A. K. ELMORE. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 607 

as the "Dobson School-house." It was built of logs, and was not 
completed for about two years, so as to be fit for use. It served a 
good.purpose for many years, not only for schools, but as a conven- 
ient place in which to hold elections and religious and other meet- 
ings. A new and more commodious house, being a substantial 
frame building, has since been erected near the site of the old house, 
which is known as the Shultis school-house. There are now seven 
substantial frame school-houses in the town, all well furnished. 

RELIGIOUS. 

The Methodist Episcopal church established regular religious 
services in the town at a very early day, probably in 1857, or 1858, 
when a class was formed. 

The Rev. A. R. Brockett, long a respected resident of this town, 
who died in 1878, and who has long been kindly remembered by 
many, gave the writer this minute: "The Free Will Baptist church 
was first instituted in this county, June 23d, 1863, and the first quar- 
terly meeting was organized the second Sunday in June, 1866." 
This denomination organized a society in this town, in March, 1869. 

The Wesleyan Methodists had an organized society for some 
years. 

OTHER SOCIETIES. 

A Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, named "Rising Sua 
Grange," was organized here in 1873, or 1874, and flourished suc- 
cessfully for some years. 

BOUNTIES TO SOLDIERS. 

On the fifteenth of December, 1863, the supervisors of the town 
determined, by resolution, that, as there was then a draft pending, 
to give a bounty of fifty dollars, in town bonds, to all such as should 
enlist in the military service of the United States, prior to January 
1st, 1864, and be credited to this town. On August 27th, 1864, the 
board raised this bounty to three hundred dollars, and on January 
5th, 1865, they re-resolved to give this bounty, and employed George 
D. McArthur, a citizen of the town, as a recruiting agent, to secure 
volunteers to till up the quota of the town. Mr. McArthur was paid 
five dollars per day, in town orders, for his services. Town ordei'S 
were then somewhat below par. At the same time, the board em- 
ployed Judge Amos Preston, also an old resident of the town, at an 
expense of five dollars per day, in town orders, to seek out such 
persons in the town, who, because of disabilities, might be exempt 
from service, or draft, and conduct them before the enrolling board, 
at Mankato, for examination and discharge. On January 11th. 1865, 
the board met again, and raised the bounty to five hundred dollars, 
and on the twentieth of the same month, they determined, by reso- 



608 llfSTOllY OF 

lution, that such bounty bonds should bear no interest, and be made 
payable June Ist, 1806. The object of these bounties, as the reader 
will doubtless perceive, was to encourage enlistments, and save the 
town from draft, or conscription. 

RAILROAD All). 

This town not only manifested a commendable spirit of patriot- 
ism, but has given substantial encouragement to public enterprises, 
especially railroad building, having often voted aid in the form of 
"bonuses," but no road was procured, as a result, except under the 
last vote (1878). 

A LAWSUIT. 

In April, 1870, an action was brought by one A. B. Webber, 
against the two towns of Elmore and Rome to recover on certain 
militarybounty bonds which he held. These were some of the bounty 
bonds given to encourage enlistments above referred to. At the 
time of the issue of the bonds, the two towns were attached. These 
actions were instituted, not because these towns repudiated the in- 
debtedness, but were permitted, mainly, to determine the actual lia- 
bilities in this behalf of the several towns, grave questions as to 
which had arisen. After a closely contested law suit, judgment was 
rendered against the town for ><l,4lll.39. At the time of commenc- 
ing the above action, another action, by the same plaintiff and for 
the same purpose, was begun against the town of Elmore alone, on 
other like bonds, and judgment was rendered against the town for 
)?809. 55. The reason of the two suits was, that the town board, 
when issuing the bonds, made some of them in the name of both 
towns, and others in the name of Elmore alone; yet, when all the 
bonds were issued, the towns were attached and constituted but 
one town district. 

On the second day of July, 1873, Rome l?eing then only a 
separate town, a joint meeting of the boards of the two towns was 
held for the purpose of adjusting their war bounty difficulties, at 
which it was resolved that each town should pay its proportionate 
share of the judgment of $1,421.39, and that the same should be lev- 
ied by a direct tax on all the taxable property of the two towns. The 
other judgment was also subsequently adjusted. 

VARIOUS INCIDENTS. 

The first death in the town was that of a Mr. Wickwire, who died 
in the winter of 1856-7. 

The first person born in this town was Ellen Miller, daughter of 
Henry and Charlotte Miller. She was born on the fifth or sixth of 
April, 1857. 




GEO. U. MCAKTHUR. 




MKS. G. D. McARTlIUK. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 609 

The first marriage whicli occurred here was that of Jacob E. 
Shirk to Catharine Schneider, March 1st, 1858. 

Tlie people of this town were injured, to some extent, especially 
in that portion of the town west of the river, by the grasshopper in- 
vasions of 1873 and 1874, but this town did not suffer as much from 
these pests as did several others. The people here also suffered 
severely from the hard, close times of 1875 and 1876, and the town, 
during these years, made but little, if any, progress in wealth, and 
lost many in population. 

There was, for some years, a post-office kept at a farm house on 
section 20, on the route from Blue Earth City to Algona, known as 
Elmore P. O., but it was subsequently removed to the village of 
Elmore, a village which had not yet put in an appearance, at the 
close of this historical sketch. 

GEO. D. MCARTHUR. 

Geo. D. McArthur, for many years a resident.and always a large land owner 
in this town, was born in Columbia county, N. Y., in August, 1834. His father, 
Duncan McArthur, was a farmer, and an old resident of that region. He re- 
moved, in 1849, with his family to Wauliesha county, Wis. George obtained 
his education in the district schools, and attended for some time at Waukesha 
college. 

In 1853 be went to New Yorl< City, where he resided a year, when he came 
west and spent some six months in Tennessee, and then came to Minnesota, in 
1855, and resided in Winona county for about a year. His next move was to this 
county. He located in this town in June, 1856. Here he engaged in farming 
and stock raising extensively. 

In the fall of 1858 he was elected representative in the State legislature, 
but no session was held in 1858-9, and his services were not required. He was 
also, subsequently elected court commissioner, but did not qualify. 

Mr. McArthur was married in 1859, to Miss Annie S. Drake, of Waukesha 
county, Wis. 

In 1864 he removed to Blue Earth City and engaged, in company with Mr. 
Uri Hill, in the mercantile business. In 18(i9 be engaged in the sale of agricul- 
tural machineryat Blue Earth City until 1871; when the railroad was completed 
to Winnebago City he removed to that place and resided there about seven 
years.still engaged in sellingagricultural implements, and this has been, largely, 
his principal business during life, yet, still always interested in farming opera- 
tions in Elmore. In 1878 he returned to Blue Earth City, where he has since 
resided, engaged in his former occupations and banking. In 1894, he was 
elected State senator, for this district. 

Mr. McArthur and his wife have, since 1862, been members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. 

His political affiliations have always been with the republican party, and 
for many years he has taken a large interest in our local politics. 

ALLEN SHULTIS. 

Allen Sbultis came to this town in company with Mr. McArthur. They 
were brothers-in-law, and, like McArthur, Mr. Shultis has been closely identi- 
fied with the town and all its interests, from that day to this. He was born in 
New York State, January 20, 1832, and came to Waukesha county, Wisconsin, 



610 HISTOIIY OF 

with his father, in 1842. Allen came to Winona county in 1855, and to thiscounty 
in 185(). Mr. Sliiiltis also hecaiue a lari^e landholder in the town, lie was u>ar- 
rled, in 1857, to Miss Elizabeth McArthur. He was often a meniher of the 
town and school boards of Elmore township. He was elected a representative 
in the State loKlslature, In 1859, and attended the sessioo of 1859-60. He was 
a meniher of the board of county commissioners, in 1804, 1865, and 1866, and was 
two years chairman of the board. In 1893 he was appointed postmaster of El- 
more. For a number of years after cominy lo this county, Mr. Shultis adhered 
to the republican party, but, subseiiuenlly allilialed with the democrats. He 
and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Shultis 
has always been engaged in farming and stock raising. 

A FEW FIGURES. 

By the census of 1860, the population of the town was 95; in 1865 there were 
295, including the residents of Rtmie township. In 1870 there were 470, Rome 
having thi'nbeen setoff. In 1875 we And 404: in 18s:),442. A large majority of the 
population are American born. 

Stock and other property in 1879: Horses, 244; cows, 372; other cattle, 404; 
mules, 6; sheep, 2.264; hogs, 624; wagons and carriages, 66; sewing machines, 
22; organs, 1. Agricultural productions (estimated) for 1879: Wheat, 16,.')00 
bushels; oats, 10,.500 bushels; corn, 15,000 bushels; barley, 800 bushels; potatoes, 
1,600 bushels; wild hay, 3,100 tons. There were 50() apple trees growing. But- 
ter produced, 29,000 lbs. The report of products is tiuite indefinite for this 
year. Assessed value of real estate for 1879, $144,052: assessed value of personal 
estate for 1879, $31,610; total, •$175,662; total tax assessed on same, $3,687.25. 

THE ELMORE "UAR." 

We cannot close this historical sketch of Elmore township 
■without giving a brief account of the once noted "Elmore Bar." 

In the early days of the town there was considerable litigation 
among some of the people who resided near the Iowa line, and who 
had but little respect for either divine or human laws. Their fre- 
quent lawsuits give rise to what was known as the Elmore Bar. a 
merely local and unprofessional institution. This bar was composed 
of Allen Shultis, Geo. D. McArthur, W. W. Knapp. Zac. Haggiu and 
DuBois Tooker, who, for a small consideration, acted as attornej's 
of litigants before the justices' court. When heavier cases than or- 
dinary ones, arose, a regular attorney from the villages was brought 
in to manage affairs, but generally went out badly beaten. The 
court was composed of Mr. Philip Chesley, a highly respected and 
old time resident of the town, who was justice of the peace, and 
Hiram Chesley, constable. Many amusing incidents occurred in 
these trials, but we can give but one of them here. In a certain 
suit, Mr. Shultis was attorney for the plaintiff, and Messrs. Tooker 
and McArthur for the defendant. As the suit enlisted considerable 
local interest, the attorneys were quite earnest in behalf of their 
several clients. Mr. Shultis prepared an elaborately written argu- 
ment and laid it up between the logs of the cabin, in which they 
lived, for safe keeping, until the momentous day, and calmly and 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 611 

confidently awaited the hour of victory over the combination of 
legal talent arrayed against him. But the opposing counsel, who 
resided in the same cabin with Mr. S., quietly purloined the argu- 
ment, and when the day of trial came, Mr. S. found it gone, but 
where, he could not imagine. He said nothing, but gallantly went 
into the contest. When the proceedings before the court, reached 
the argument, lo, and behold! one of the defendant's counsel read, 
with great energy and emphasis, the lost argument, and won the case. 
Mr. Shultis was afterwards heard to say that he considered the 
cabbaging of his argument a very mean trick, as he was thus com- 
pelled to furnish brains for both sides, while he could only charge 
for one and for that had to take his client's note, which was never 
paid. 

OFFICIAL. 

Prior to the closing year of this historical sketch, this township 
had contributed to the public services, three county commissioners, 
Wilson, Preston and Shultis, each of whom was chairman of the 
board; two members of the State legislature, McArthur and Shultis; 
a judge of probate, Preston; two court commissioners elect, Preston 
and McArthur (neither of whom qualified, however), and a coroner, 
W. A. Way. _ 

The following is a list of the names of a number of residents of 
the town prior to the close of 1879. It is impossible now to give 
the names of all who have been residents: 

Chas. Aling, Dan Ackerman, F. Albright. A. D. Adams, P. H. Austia, A.S. 
Anderson, A. R. Brockett, Daniel Boon, Abija Bowen, C. Bartz, H. Benson, H. 
Barkley, A. Beckwith, A. Cook, John Coppernoll, Enos Coppernoll, H. Copper- 
noll, S. N. Gaboon, J. A. Gaboon, J. Allison Gaboon, E. GoUison, Phillip 
Cbesley, Hiram Gbesley, Wm. Cbesley, J. E. Cbase, G. Collison, A. Gollison, R. 
M. Gordill, W. S. Drake, Sr., W. S. Drake, Jr., F. Goodrich, J Hardie, A. G. 
Hardie, F. L. Rowland, H. P. Hanson, P. B. Hanyburst, J. Haggin, A. T. Ire- 
land, A. G. Ingalls, E. G. Ingalls, John Ingalls, A. Krosch, W. Krosch, G. 
Krosch, J. Klatt, J. A. LaPoint, G. D. McArthur, C. McArthur, A. D. Mason, 
Elliot Mason, John McGoy, Sam'l Monroe, J. F. McLaughlin, W. G. Middleton, 
0. Mathews, Orin Moffltt, M. Nauman, S. H. Norton, Wm. B. Page, Amos Pres- 
ton, J. M. Purdie, Harrison Pratt, Jas. Pratt, A. Russell, J. G. Russell, Roenus 
Robbins, Al. Robbins, Russell Richardson, J. Richardson, Benj. Stanton, W. 
M. Saxton, D. Schneider, Simon Schneider, Charles Stockman, Ralph Stock- 
man, R. R. Stockman, F. Smith, Jas. Sullivan, Martin Shultis, L. K. Sharpe, 
G. Sharpe, Du. P.. Tooker, Geo. A. Taylor, R. Taylor, Alfred E. Taylor, Allen 
Taylor, A. Taylor, C. Taylor, Sherman Taylor, J. VanSlyke, W. H. Vining, J. J. 
Vrooman, Geo. Vrooman, John H. VauBuren, A. J. Wilcox, C. Whittoun, O. 
Webster, P. Welden, Marshall Way, Henry Woolery, H. A. Woolery. 



612 HISTOnV OF 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



ROME TOWNSHIP. 

The United States government in its ofiBcial land sui-veys, num- 
bers this township one hundred and one (101) north, of range 
twenty-six (2()) west, of the principal meridian. 

The surface of the town has an avorage elevation of eleven hun- 
dred and sixty feet above the level of tide water, and the depth of 
the drift here is doubtless over one hundred feet to bed rock. Yet 
this fact has never been determined accurately, either by deep wells 
or otherwise. The surface is slightly undulating, or rolling prairie, 
well adapted to farming, grazing and stock raising. The soil is very 
fertile and all crops which can be raised in the northwest, can be 
successfully grown here. There is no native timber in the town, but 
there are many and large artificial groves of forest trees, and more 
being constantly added. Coon ci'eek heads in this town, and this 
with several slough rivulets, are the only water courses in the town. 
Good well water is obtained in abundance, at moderate depths. 

THE FIRST SETTLEMENT. 

The first permanent settler of this township was Ole Nelson 
(Hauge) who settled upon and claimed the northeast quarter of sec- 
tion three (3) early in March, 1863. Mr. Nelson was born in Nor- 
way. He emigrated to the United States and first settled in Dane 
county, Wisconsin. He subsequently removed to this county, loca- 
cating in the town of Emerald, where he resided several years, and 
then removed to Rome, as above stated. Mr. Nelson has always been 
a farmer by occupation. 

Owing to the fact that Rome is a prairie town, it was among the 
towns last settled. 

AmonK those who are entitled to the name of old settlers of Rome, and who 
were residents of the town in 1868 or prior thereto, we record the names of Fred 
Everton, T. J. Everton, L. Rogers, H. Cordell, J. II. Stubbs, D. Coyle, A. Bart- 
lett, L. II. Ames, K. Peterson, Nels Thompson, George Rartlett, L. Kallostadt, 
L. Edson, John Emerson, C. Xing, W. D. Clark, Wm. Sterrett, John Sterrett, 
W. G. Clark, L. K. Wondwick, C. Nelson, H. Thompson, O. E. Legwold, Ste- 
phenson Iverson, Flo. Simeon Hess, J.Klareweter, VV. Tolliver, Eric Amundson, 
II. Ilalverson, P. Larson, A. Mickelson, A. Rasmusson, L. Sieverson, Jas. Pat- 
terson, Wm. Oelke, (). H. Littlefleld, Philip Maglouglln. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 613 

THE NAME. 

This tovrn was first called "Campbell," by the special commis- 
sioners, in 1858, in honor of one James Campbell, who, by the way, 
was never a resident of this town, but was one of the first settlers in 
Elmore township. The writer has been unable to learn that "Old 
Jimmy," as Mr. Campbell was usually called, was ever distinguished 
for anything special, except that he was a smooth talking, plaus- 
ible, old Scotch-Irishman, and was skilled in "swappin' hoses, "and 
turned an honest penny in that way, occasionally. He left this 
country many years ago, and his present place of residence is un- 
known to the writer. 

The town was attached, by the special commissioners, to El- 
more, for civil purposes, and so remained until the January session 
of the county board, in 1868, when it was detached, and the name 
of the town was changed to "Grant," in honor of Gen. U. S. Grant. 
But it soon appeared that there was another town in the State, of 
the same name, and the State auditor directed the name to be 
changed again, which was done at the session of the county board, 
in March, 1868, and the town named "Rome," its present name. 

Some persons have said that the town was named in honor of 
old Pagan Rome, once the mistress of the world, others that ec- 
clesiastical Rome, the head of the church, was intended to be hon- 
ored, but, the fact is, that the town was named for the city of Rome, 
in the state of New York, and the name was suggested by Fred 
Everton, who, though not the first, was the second settler in the 
town, and for many consecutive years, from its organization, was 
chairman of the town board. 

The name Rome, as a designation of a locality, is undoubtedly 
more universally known, among men, than any other name in 
use at present, or any other to be found in history. There are some 
twenty cities, villages and postofiices, in the United States, of this 
name, and then there is the never to be forgotten, old Rome, on the 
Tiber— "The Eternal City." 

ORGANIC. 

When the town was set off as a separate town, the county board 
directed an election for town officers to be held on the twenty- 
eighth day of January, 1868, but a severe storm prevented the hold- 
ing of this election. The first election was held on the second day 
of March, of that year, at which officers were chosen, but there was 
another election held for town officers, which occurred on the eighth 
day of April, following, at which most of the same persons were 
chosen, as at the prior election. The second election was rendered 
necessary because of some irregularities in the first. 



614 HISTORY OF 

The town has kept up its organization and self government 
from that clay to this. 

The roster of town officers was made up of the following named 
residents of the township, in 1868, when the town was organized : 

Supervisors, Fred Evcrton, chairman, T. J. Everton and Geo. Bartlett: 
town clerk, W. J. Cordill; treasurer, 8. H. Stubbs; assessor, D. Coyle; justices 
of the peace, Wni. Burton and K. Peterson; constables, L. Edson and J.Enarson. 

The olllcers for the years 1878St, were: for supervisors, H. E. Legvold, chair- 
man, W. G. Clark and T. Mikkleson: town clerk, .S. O. Nortoa; treasurer, 
Ole Nelson; assessor, C. A. Erdahl; justice of the peace, W. .T. Cordill; con- 
table, H. Tennessen. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

The first school house erected in this town was built in 1870 
near the farm of Wm. Sterrett. It is a good substantial frame build- 
ing and is known as "the Sterrett school house." The Hess school 
house is over the line, and in Elmore, and was erected by a joint 
school district, composed of territory taken from both Rome and 
Elmore. This house was erected before the Sterrett school house. 
There are now three school houses in the town. It is said that a 
Miss Tolliver taught the first school. 

RELIGIOUS. 

The United Presbyterians established a society here at a very 
early day, and have had. for many years, a resident minister. This 
congregation worshiped, for many years, at the Sterrett school 
house. The Norwegian Lutherans have also had public worship in 
this town for many years past. 

SUNDRY INCIDENTS. 

An act was passed by the State Legislature in 1868. to provide 
for the payment of certain taxes by the town of Grant, in Faribault 
county, which enacted that the said town "which was detached from 
the town of Elmore * * shall be and is hereby declared to 
be liable to pay the same proportion of the tax thereafter neces- 
sary to be levied for the payment of the bounties offered by the 
said town to the volunteers of the late war. as would have been the 
case had the said town of Grant remained without a separate and 
independent organization." The town had been set off in .January 
1868, and the purport of this act is plain. 

In 1870. the town, together with Elmore, was sued on military 
bounty bonds, issued when the town was attached to Elmore. 
Judgment was entered against the two towns for ^1.421. and 
costs, a proportionate share of which was paid by this town, and 
also of another judgment against Elmore alone, for ^809. The 
matter is more fully recited in the history of Elmore township. 



FABIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 615 

The people of Rome have suffered severely, many times, from 
destructive prairie fires, which have swept over the country. Ref- 
erences thereto will be found in the general history of the county. 
That of August, 1874, was very disastrous to many. 

The town has frequently voted to aid in the building of rail- 
roads, but without effect, until the last vote taken, wliich secured a 
road to Blue Earth City, and thence southward. 

In 1870, the town voted $8,000 in bonds to the Burlington, C. R. 
and M. R. R. Company, to build a road from Mason City, Iowa, to 
Blue Earth City, which, if it had been built, would have given the 
town a depot, but the project proved a failure. 

Up to the close of this history, the town has furnished to the 
public service a member of the board of county commissioners, L. 
K. Woodwick. 

a' few figures. 

When the census of 1860 was taken, there were no inliabitants in 
Rome township. At the census of 1865 the town was attached to 
Elmore, and its inhabitants were enumerated with that town. 

By the census of 1870 there were 396 souls in the town, and in 1875, 458; in 
1880, 504. The residents of this town are Americans, Germans, Scotch and Nor- 
wegians, the latter nationality largely predominating. 

In 1879, there were in the town 214 horses, 436 cows, 485 other cattle, 12 
mules, 362 sheep, 188 hogs, 69 wagons and carriages, 21 sewing machines, and 2 
organs. 

The assessed value of real estate that year was, $117,787. The assessed value 
of personal property that year was, $22,015. Total, $139,802. The total tax as- 
sessed thereon was $1,584.32. 

The agricultural products of the same year were as follows: Wheat, 27,000 
bushels; oats, 26,000 bushels; corn, 12,000 bushels; barley. 1,300 bushels; pota- 
toes, 1,700 bushels: sorgum syrup, 700 gallons; flaxseed, 590 bushels; wool 1,482 
pounds; butter, 31,000 pounds. Total acreage cultivated, 3,400. 

In addition to the names of early settlers in this town, already given, there 
is here added a further list of residents, prior to the close of 1879. All, however, 
may not be named: 

J. Anderson, A. Amundson, T. Atlakson, E. Amundson, P. Berg, A. L. 
Brakke, A. B. Balcom, E. A. Brownlee, W. J. Cordell, Curtis Dolliver, Fones 
Dolliver, C. Dalsing, S. Erdahal, L. Erdahl, R. M. Erdahl,C. A. Erdahl, A. O. 
Egness, Iver K. Floe, J. C. Foster, J. A. Fibelstad, S. Gerke, O. Hemmingson, 
J. Hemmingson, H. Halverson, E. Halverson, A. Ingebretson, O. Jacobson, K. 
Johnson, A. Johnson, L. A. Kallestadt, C. A. Kallestadt, P. Knudtson, P. Lar- 
son, C. II. Littlefleld, S. Lovass, H. E. Legvold, O. J. Legrid, A. Mikkleson, T. 
Mikkleson, A. Markesan, O. M. Mehl, 0. O. Mehl, P. F. Mundale, Philip Mag- 
louglin, S. O. Norton, O. Nilson, J. Nilson, G. Nilson, L. Oelke, Wm. Oelke, O. 
Oleson, L. A. Olson, Ole Olson, A. Oleson, Ole Peterson, C. W. Quiggle, O. J. 
Quam, R. M. Robertson, A. Rasmusson, L. Seivertson, O. Sjorson, J.K. Starrett, 
H. Simanson, O. O. Steene, T. Thorson, T. Torgerson, Neils G. Thompson, H. 
Thompson, R. J. Underdahl, O. J. Weberg, Ludwig Willmert, G. Willmert, 
W. Willmert, 



616 HISTOItY OF 



CHAPTER XIX. 



SEELY TOWNSHIP. 

The town of Seely is Congressional townsliip one hundred and 
one (101) north, of range twenty-five (25) west. The surroundings of 
this town are as follows: On the north is Brush Creek township, on 
the east is the town of Kiester, on the sbuth is the Iowa State line, 
and on the west is the town of Rome. The mean elevation of this 
town above sea level is eleven hundred and seventy -five feet. A 
well bored on the southwest quarter of section four, to a depth of one 
hundred and twenty-three feet, proves the drift here to be about 
ninety-five feet in depth, to bed-rock. The bed-rock is a bluish- 
gray limestone. This is a prairie township, and the surface is mod- 
erately rolling. The soil is deep and fertile. Tillable and pasture 
lands are well proportioned. Brush Creek runs through the north- 
east corner of the town, and the east branch of the Blue Earth river 
through the northwest, and these, besides several slough runs, are 
the living streams of the town. Most of the lands are easily drained. 
There is no native timber in this town, except what is found on the 
Blue Earth River. Many thousands of trees have been set out by 
farmers, and there are now many fine groves of forest trees, well 
advanced, which dot the wide, green prairies on every hand. 

EARLY SETTLEMENT. 

The first white man to locate in this town was Jacob E. Shirk. 
He settled upon the northwest quarter of section four, about the 
twelfth day of .June, 1856, and made the first improvements in the 
town in breaking up the land and erecting buildings. 

Mr. Shirk was born in Lancaster county, Penn. He served four 
years in the United States Marine corps, was present in Japan at the 
signing of the treaty in 1854. between the United States and Japan, 
being a member of Commodore Perry's expedition. During this 
expedition, Mr. Shirk circumnavigated the globe. He was dis- 
charged from the service in November, 1855, at Washington, D. C. 
and immediately emigrated to Clarksville. Iowa, and from thence to 
Minnesota in 1856, as above stated. He was married in 1858 to Miss 
Catharine Schneider. 




V. C. SKKLY. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 617 

Early in 1865, he enlisted in a Minnesota regiment of heavy 
artillery, and was ordered south, but the rebellion closing, he was, 
after seven months' service, discharged, after which time he engaged 
in farming on his old homestead in this town. Mr. Shirk died July 
15th, 1895. 

The following list embraces the names of all persons residing in 
the town in June, 1860, according to the United States census of that 
year. 

Foster— Khrahaxa. P?-«J(— David, Mrs. Asenath, James, Parizade, Harri- 
son, Ellen. ProW— Samuel, Mrs. Helen, Ida. S/iu-t— Jacob E., Mrs. Catharine, 
Jefferson. Seely — Philander C, Mrs. Harriet, Clement. See^^v— Willard. 

But there are others whose names should be added to this list 
of the early settlers of the town, among whom were David Shirk, 
William Poster, Wm. B. Taylor, and Chester Eddy. 

The following table exhibits the appraised wealth of the people 
of this town, as set forth in the census schedules of 1860: 

Acres of land improved 85 

Value of farms $2,000 

No. of horses .5 

No. of milch cows 16 

No. of working oxen ]6 

No. of other cattle 1.3 

No. of swine 20 

Value of live stock $ 985 

Value of farm implements and machinery 363 

The first company of immigrants who located in this town, was 
that of David Pratt andhis large family, accompanied by P. C. Seely 
and family, and a number of other persons who all located here in the 
year 1857. They took up considerable land, and proceeded to make 
large improvements. Deacon David Pratt, the patriarch of this 
company, was a man of more than ordinary intelligence and force of 
character, and was possessed of some considerable means and with all, 
and over all, was an earnest, christian man, who illustrated his pro- 
fession in his every day life and conduct. For many years the house 
of Mr. Pratt was the headquarters of the town, and the sto^jping 
place of the traveler, the immigrant and the missionary, all of whom 
found here, at all times, the most generous hos23itality. Mr. Pratt 
died in August, 1877. 

THE NAME OP THE TOWN. 

The town was named Seely, by the special commissioners, in 
in 1858, in honor of Philander C. Seely, one of the earliest settlers 
of the town. 

PHILANDER C. SEELY. 

Mr. Seely was born in Cayuga county, state of New York, in 1823. He emi- 
grated to Wisconsin in 1846, and from thence to this county in 1857. 

He married Miss Harriet Pratt, a daughter of David Pratt. They have one 
child living, Clement W. Seely, now a resident of the town. Mr. Seely was the 



618 HISTORY OF 

first chairoian of the licarii df suporvisois, of this town, and ihi; first justice of 
th(! peace, being chosen to tiolli olllces the same year. He was also a tncniber 
of the board of county supervisors (now coiuniissioners) one tiTui. lie was 
elected to the otllce of sheriff, of this county, in the fall of 18iil, receivint? every 
vote polled in the county. He served one term. When elected sheriff he re- 
moved to Blue Earth City, where he resided some years, but subsefjuently 
returned to his farm in Seely, and enjraKcd in farmin)^. He was in the military 
service of the United States, and went south near the close of the rebellion. 

Mr. .Seely, in his youn^rer days, toolc much interest in politics, and early 
allied himself with the republican party, lie was a delegate to the lirst free- 
soil convention, which assembled in Wisconsin, and which was held in 1848, 
when the free-soil party was organized in that state, and he supported Mr. Van 
liuren, the free-soil candidate for president that year. 

Since writing the above sketch Mr. Seely returned again to Blue Earth 
City to reside, accompanied by his son and his family, and there he expects to 
spend the remainder of his days. 

There are five i)ost offices in the United States named Seely, 
and two named Seelyville. 

ORGANIZATION. 

This town was organized for civil purposes in 1858. and has 
kept up its organization to this day. The town of Kiester, then 
"Lake," was attached to Seely by the special commissioners in 1858 
for town purposes, and so remained until set off as a separate town 
by the county commissioners, January 4th, 1892. On the sixth of 
March, 1860, the two town districts of "Seely and Kiester" and 
"Brush Creek and Poster." were consolidated as one town district, 
by the county board, but this arrangement did not continue a great 
while. 

The first board of town officers, elected in 1858, were: P. C. 
Seely, chairman of the supervisors and Abraham Foster and Samuel 
Pratt, side supervisors; town clerk, Willard Seely; assessor. 
David Pratt; justice of the peace, P. C. Seely; constable. James 
Pratt; treasurer, David Pratt. 

The town officers in 1879. the last year of this sketch, were the 
following named persons: supervisors, P. J. Glasted, chairman, 
O. Reed and C. Sheldon; town clerk, G. B. Bates; assessor, C. W. 
Seely; treasurer, R. 0. Haaland; justices of the peace. P. C. Seely 
and D. Salley; constables, Fred Williams and J. Reed. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

The first school house was built on the lines between the towns of 
Seely and Brush Creek, in the year 1858, the district then compris- 
ing the two towns. The house was built of logs, and was sixteen 
feet by twenty-four feet in size, and one story high. The first school 
was taught by Miss Parizade Pratt (afterwards Mrs. H. Raymond) 
in the above house, in the summer of 1858. There are now five sub- 
stantial, well furnished school houses in the town, and a very com- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 619 

mendable spirit has always been manifested on the subject of edu- 
cation. 

RELIGIOUS AND OTHER SOCIETIES. 

The first sermon preached in this township, was delivered by 
the Rev. Mr. Judd (Methodist), of the Winnebago Indian Agency, 
in the old log liouse of Deacon David Pratt, in February, 1858. The 
Baptist church was organized here, December 19th, 1858. Tlie Nor 
wegian Evangelical Lutheran church was organized about 1870, and 
this society erected a church edifice in the northwestern portion of 
the town, in 1872, on section 7. The Methodists organized in De- 
cember, 1871. A Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry was insti- 
tuted here in the days when that society flourished in this county. 

VARIOUS EVENTS. 

The first person born in Seely township was Ida M. Px-att, 
daughter of Samuel Pratt. She was born in August, 1858. 

The first marriage was that of Abraham Poster, to Miss Emily 
M. C. Murray, which occurred on the fourth day of May, 1859, and 
the ceremony was performed by Mr. Seely, justice of the peace. 

The first death was that of Samuel Pratt, which took place 
Januai'y 5th, 1863. 

A postofiice was established in this town named "Clayton," 
about the year 1859, on section four. Clayton is now known as 
something more than a post-office. It may be designated as a ham- 
let, and the headquarters of the town. For many years there has 
been a store here, and a hotel, blacksmith shop, school house, etc. 

There are two other post-offices in the town, one named 
Homedahl, on section 30; and one named Seely, on section twenty- 
two. 

Prior to the close of this history, this town has furnished the 
following public officers: two county commissioners, Seely and Sis- 
son; a sheriff, Seely; a county surveyor, Sisson. 

Prior to the close of 1879, there wei'e many settlers who came 
into this town, the names of some of whom, not already mentioned, 
are recorded here. 

K. Ander.son, A. Armstrong, J. Anderson, L. T. Batland, C. Bloom, A. B. 
Brant, G. D. Bassett, G. B. Bates, John Cushins, R. Dericksoo, C. E. Everett, 
F. S. Everette, A. Foster, Ole Gudall, T. N. Gestie, P. J. Glasted, M. O. Hogue, 
D. L. Hogue, J. G. Hogue, J. O. Hove, C. O. Haaland, T. O. Haaland, R. O. Haa- 
land, F. Hulbert, M. Halsett, A. Halsett, h. Johnson, C. Johnson, J. O. John- 
son, D. Johnson, Otten Iverson, Henry Kamrar, S. P. Langsav, S. Larson, L. 
Lewison, A. W. Langworthy, B. H. Langworthy, W. F. Lawrence, O. W. Lee, N. 
Nelson, O. N. Oleson, J. Peterson, P. Peterson, A. Peterson, S. Peterson, F. Pet- 
erson, J. Pratt. G. Pratt, W. W. Reed, E. R. Reed, J. Reed, O. Reed. John Reed, 
S. L. Rugg, T. T. Rosdale, Ira M. Riker, A. L. Rake, J. Raymimd, J. R Sisson, 
Jeff. Shirk, J. M. Showalter, Daniel Salley, O. Sannon, T. D. Stodland, T.Sher- 
man, 0. Scholden, T. L. Sherman, W. Seely. C. W. Seely, A. Torkleson, O. B. 
ThoDjpson, E. J. Torquine, Geo. Venim, H. Wing, Fred. Williams. 



620 HISTORY OF 



STATISTICS. 



The reports for the year 1870, show Id this town, 240 horses; 442 cows: :i99 
other cattle; 8 mules; 170 sheep; ;t9 hogs; 30 wagons and carriages; II sewinu 
machines; 6 organs. The assessed value of real property for that year was 
$101,7;!,"); personal, 824. r)(il; total, $126,296. Total assessment on the same for 
18711, was $1,873.88. Of agricultural products, there were, for 1879, of wheat 
30,000 hushels; oats, 17,000 bushels; corn, 11,000 bushels; barley, 1,200 bushels; 
potatoes, l.SHX) bushels, syrup, 1.200 gallons; flaxseed, 225 bushels: wool, 1,100 
pounds; butter, 45,000pounds: cheese, 1,800 pounds. 

The population of the town in 1860, was 17, in 1865, it was 83, in 1870 it was 
266, in 1875 it was 368, and in 1S,S0 it was ■l-*!- A large proportion of the inhabi- 
tants areof Norwegian nationality. 

Her er lidt Historie, oldtidens og nutidens Historie. Efter old 
tidens sagaer, der forta3ller os om, at Erik den Ri'ide, ••en Nord- 
mand." i Aaret 983, besOgte den sOndre Kyst af Gn'mland og grund- 
lagde der en Koloni, og at bans sOn, Leif Eriksen, med et fulge af 
tnodige somicnd i Aaret 1000, najsten fem hundrede Aar fr)r Colum- 
bus var f()dt, opdagede og landede paa Kysten af Nord Amerika, 
hvor de plantede det gamle Norges flag, og grundlagde en Koloni. 
Det nye land blev af dem kaldet Vinland. Nordma9ndene kunde 
saaledes have gjort fordring paa Amerika. som opdagere af landet; 
men deres Koloni dode snart ud og opdagelsen glemtes; kun erind- 
ret i Aarhundredernes lob gjennem gamle ForticUinger og upaalide- 
lige Optegnelser. Men i det siste Aarhundrede bar mange hun- 
drede tusinde af Norske folk kommet over til Amerika. og af disse 
har Minnesota i de siste firti Aar faaet en meget stor part. De. og 
deres Eflerkommere udgjor en stor del of vor stats og countj''s be- 
folkning. Mange af de allerfOrste settlere i Emerald, Brush Creek, 
Seely^ Rome, Delavan og forskellige andre townships var Nord- 
micnd. Amerikas frie Institutioner falder meget naturlige for 
Skandinaverne, og de blive snart forligte med dem; paa grund af at 
Skandinaverne i Aarhundreder har vaeret stadige Forkjtempere for 
hvert enkelt individs tanke og handle frihed. De har vicret en ud- 
holdende race og vanskelige at tvinge under en vilkaarlig og despo- 
tisk tivriglieds Hen'edi">mme. og sandheden er, at dette har endnu 
aldrig vioret gjort i det mindste for nogen hcngere tid i de gamle 
lande. Deres Pfedres lande med sine hole fjelde og dybe dale, sin 
frie luft. sin nierhed til den aabne sij, det oplivende klima. de gamle, 
ofte gjentagne sagaer om frihed og om Fasdreues uforfa^rdede og 
heltemodige gjerninger, har alt tilsammen forenet sig til at frem- 
bringe et friheds elskende folk: og idag er der ikke et land i Europa. 
som ikke allerede er en republik, der er mere skikket for frie Insti- 
tutioner end Norge. Ikke engang England. For i det sidste land 
fortryller og behersker glandsen af en arvelig Adelsstilling og rig- 
dom endnu alt formeget det engelske sind. Helo Amerika, og isaer- 
deleshed dets folk af Norsk herkomst. vil naar Norge opnaar, hvad 
dets statsmjcnd haaber paa. en uafha?ngig republiks stilling, hilse 
den dag velkommen med saa huie jubel raab. at deres ekko skal 
gjenlyde over hele jorden. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 621 



CHAPTER XX. 



KIESTER TOWNSHIP. 

This is the southeast township of the county and is numbered 
on the government surveys, as town one hundred and one (101) north, 
of range twenty-four (24) west. It is bounded on the north by Foster 
township, on the east by the town of Mansfield, in Freeborn county, 
on the south by the State line, and on the west by Seely township. 

The average elevation, above sea level, of this town is, twelve 
hundred and fifty feet, but there is one elevation, or point of land 
which is fourteen hundred feet. There is a range of morainic or 
drift hills in this town designated by the State geologist, as the 
"Kiester Hills," and which extend, in a northwestern direction, 
• some twenty miles to the southwest part of Lura township. We 
quote here from Vol. I, "Geology of Minnesota:" 

"The most hilly portions of Kiester are its south side, for a width of one 
mile, and a belt through its northeast part, from section 13 to sections 3 and 4, 
in which are the most prominent of these hills, visible fifteen miles to the 
north and west. 

Their height is from 100 to 200 feet above the lowlands, * * * the highest 
points, which are in the S. W. i of section 3, being about 1,400 feet above the 
sea. These are massive hills of till, of irregular outlines." * «■ * 

These hills, on section 3, are not only the highest lands in the town, but 
constitutes the summit, or crowning elevation, of the county, and of a large scope 
of country, in every direction, surrounding them. And considering the general 
elevation of this town above sea level, the people of the town, going anywhere 
in the county, outside of their town, may be said to'be 'going down' to the place 
visited, and persons going to this town, from any part of the county, are 'going 
up' to the town. 

"Between the hill ranges of the north and south parts of this township, its 
central portion, for a width of two or three miles, is moderately undulating 
till. * •* * In sections 8, 17, 20 and 29, through the west part of Kiester, 
a series of hills of till, 60 to 75 feet high, connects the west ends of these ranges, 
and forms the west border of the lower tract between them, except at the gap 
through which Brush creek flows." 

The general surface of the town, as indicated, is quite high, dry 
and rolling. The soil generally is deep and as fertile as any in the 
State. There are numerous gravel beds in the town, which, at no 
distant day, will prove of considerable value for various purposes. 
The township is entirely prairie, there being no native timber in it 
whatever, but numerous groves of forest trees have been planted by 



622 HISTORY OF 

Iho residouls which are changing the appearance of the country very 
much, and adding greatly to the beauty of the landscape and to the 
comfort of its homesteads. Brush creek has its sources mainly in 
this township, and is the only stream of running water in it, but 
there are here a number of fine springs of clear, cold water. 

"A copious spring, much resorted to by cattle, * * issues 
near the middle of section 14, upon land twenty-five feet higher 
than neighboring depressions, and a hundred feet below the highest 
hills, near the northeast and northwest." 

ABORIGINAL MOUNDS. 

Two mounds, apparently artificial, which are circular, and 
about twenty feet in diameter, and a foot and a half in hight, are 
found near the center of section nineteen. 

Good well water is easily obtained at moderate depths. 

And now, with this general view of the physical features of this 
town, we may proceed to a brief sketch of its history. 

THE NAME. 

This town was named "Lake" by the special commissioners in 
1858, under the erroneous impression that it contained a number of 
lakes. There are, however, no lakes in the town. 

It appearing subsequently that there was another town in the 
State of this name, the State Auditor directed the name to be 
changed, and accordingly on the fourth day of January, 1859. the 
board of county supervisors named the town "Kiester," after one 
J. A. Kiester, of Blue Earth City, whose name appears occasionally 
in this history of the county. 

Mr. Kiester was born in Pennsylvania in 1832. He received his 
education in the common schools and at Mount Pleasant and Dick- 
inson colleges, in that state. He served an apprenticeship of four 
years in learning the mercantile business and book-keeping. He 
subsequently studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1855. 

In 1856 he came west to Wisconsin, where he remained some 
months. In April, 1857, he located at Blue Earth City, where he 
has ever since resided. He was married in December, 1859, to Miss 
Caroline Billings, of this county. They have had six children, one 
of whom died in infancy. Since coming to this county, Mr. Kiester 
has been county surveyor, register of deeds, member of the lower 
House of our state legislature in 1865, county attorney, judge of pro- 
bate court over twenty-one years, and state senator four years. He is 
a Mason, and a member of Blue Earth City lodge, of which he was 
twice W. Master, and he was subsequently chosen twice Grand 
Master of Masons in Minnesota. 




J. A. KIESTER. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 623 

Mr. Kiester has always been a republican in politics, and he 
and his family are members of the Protestant Episcopal Church at 
Blue Earth City, of which he has been a lay reader for some years. 
He was the writer of this history of the county. 

FIRST SETTLEMENT. 

Owing to the want of native timber in this town, and the further 
fact that much of the land was owned by speculators, this was 
among the last towns in the county to be settled. 

Eli E. Judd and A. W. Judd selected lands here, about the first 
of November, 1865, and about the middle of December following, J. 
E. Wing, selected a tract of land for settlement. These jjersons 
did not remain during the winter, but on the seventeenth of May, 
1866, they returned with their families and located on the lands pre- 
viously selected by them, on sections 20 and 21. On the next day. 
May 18th, Henry Conrad and George L. Conrad settled in the town, 
on section nine. 

Henry Conrad, one of the very first, if not the first actual set- 
tler of the town, as has been claimed, settled here in May, 1866. He 
was born in Oswego county, N. Y., in 1829. He learned the trade 
of carpenter and builder. In 1854 he went to Chicago, and worked 
at bridge building. On the fifteenth of December, 1854, he was mar- 
ried to Miss Sophia Cooley, of New York. They have eight children. 
He removed to Wisconsin, where he continued to reside until the 
spring of 1866, when he settled in this township, as above stated, 
and now has a large and valuable farm. Mr. Oonrad served in the 
army during the rebellion and is a republican in politics. George 
L.. Conrad, a brother of Henry, and also a resident of this town, was 
also born in the state of New York, and came to this town with his 
brother Henry, and became one of the prosperous farmers of the 
township. We have no further notes of Mr. George Conrad's per- 
sonal history, that we may give the same in more detail. 

J. N. Price, Ezra Oliphant and Wm. Cole moved into the town 
in the fall of 1866. 

Among the other early settlers were Hiram Wing, C. B.Wlng, A. J. Guern- 
sey, George Greely, Ole F. Mondale, Charles Oliphant, George Doust, Sylvester 
Payne, J. E. Wing and Albert Elston. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

The first school house was erected on section twenty-one, in 1868. 
It was a frame building, eighteen by twenty- eight feet; well finished, 
and at the time it was built, was among the best school houses in the 
county. This was known as the Judd school house. There is a good 
school library of over one hundred volumes, at this school house. 
The second school house, which is a very good one, was erected 
about the year 1870, on section ten (10) and is known as the "Con- 



G24 HISTORY OF 

rad school house. " There are now three good school houses in this 
town. 

ORGANIZATION. 

This town was attached by the special commissioners, in 1858, 
to the town of Seely, for civil piirpose.s. and so remained until Jan- 
uary 4th, 1872. when it was set off by the county commissioners, on 
a petition of the inhabitants, and was soon organized as a separate 
town. 

The first board of town officers, at the organization of the town, 
was composed of the following named citizens: Supervisors, S. 
Payne, chairman, J. N. Price and A. J. Guernsey; town clerk, J. 
E. Wing; treasurer, H. Conrad; assessor, Ole P. Mondale; justices 
of the peace, Thos. Robertson, and G. L. Conrad; constables, Geo. 
Doust and C Oliphant. 

The town officers during the last year of this sketch — 1879— 
were the following named persons: Supervisors, Ole P. Mondale, 
chairman, J. Harvey and E Oliphant; town clerk, G. G. Goodwin; 
treasurer, C. Oliphant; assessor, S. Payne; justices of the peace, 
J. Trattles and H. Mondale; constable, H. Doust. 

RELIGIOUS AND OTHER SOCIETIES. 

Religious services have been regularly held here for many 
years, by the Episcopal Methodists, who had a small society, or 
class oi'ganized about the year, 1872. Other religious bodies have 
also held public services here. A Grange of the Patrons of Hus- 
bandry was organized in the town, on the tenth day of July, 1873. 
Wm. Billings, master; A. Eaton, secretary. 

ITEMS OF INTEREST. 

The first boy born iu the town was Willard Conrad, son of 
Henry Conrad. He was born on Christmas. 1866. The first girl 
born here was Mary E. Judd, daughter of E. E. Judd. She was born 
March 25th, 1867. 

The first marriage in the town occurred on the twenty fifth day 
of October, 1868, when A. W. Langworlhy and Miss Fidelia Wing, 
and C. B. Wing and Miss Henrietta Calkins were married by Rev. 
S. L. Rugg. 

The first death that happened in this town, was that of William 
Cozard, who died in the fall of 1872. He was almost dead, with 
"consumption," when he came into the town, and died aboutaweek 
after his arrival. 

There is one post-office in the town, named Kiester, on the north- 
east quarter of section twonty-one. 

The railroad market most convenient, for some years, for the 
people settled here, is at Alden, in Freeborn county. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 625 

STATISTICS. 

By the census of 1870, which was the first taken in this town, the popula- 
tion was 61; in 1875, there were 89 inhabitants; in 1880, 130. The American 
born inhabitants are largely in excess of other nationalities. 

The assessor's reports, for 1879, show that there were, that year, in the 
town, 83 horses, 116 cows, 123 other cattle, 153 sheep, 50 hogs, 27 wagons and 
carriages, and 7 sewing machines, with much other property. The assessed 
vahie of real estate, for that year, was $112,343; the assessed value of personal 
estate, $7,149; total, $119,492. Total tax assessed on the same was $1,056.38. 

The agricultural products of the town, for 1879, are estimated as follows: 
Wheat, 10,000 bu.; oats, 9,000 bu.; corn, 4,000 bu.; barley, 300 bu.: potatoes, 300 
bu.; syrup, 400 gals.; cultivated hay, 22 tons, wild hay, 700 tons; timothy seed, 
56 bu.; wool, 1,000 lbs.; butter, 5,000 lbs. Total acreage cultivated, 1,200. 

This sketch may now be concluded by a brief statement of the names of a 
number of residents who had settled in the town prior to the close of 1879, in 
addition to those already mentioned. A. A. Anderson, S. P. Corr, Fred Con- 
rad, Andrew Eaton, H. Ford, J. Godding, G. S. Goodwin, E. Hays, J. Harvey, 
S. Johnson, H. F. Mondale, O. F. Mondale, C. Oliphant, W. Oliphant, F. 
Oliphant, E. Oliphant, M. Oliphant, S. N. Payne, H. O. Stage, H. E. Stage, 
David Salisberry, Z. C. Sisson, E. Trattles, H. A. Waldreff. 

The writer is indebted to Messrs. E. E. Judd and Hiram Wing 
for many of the facts set forth in this slcetch of Kiester, and for the 
tables of town officers. 

The history of this town is quite brief and uneventful, yet its 
future may be as prosperous and important as that of any town in 
the county. 



020 UISTOin Of 



PART THIllD. 



Historical Sketches op the County Government and of 

THE Several County Offices of the County to the 

Close op 1879, with Biographical Notices of 

the Several Officers, to Date of 

Publication. 



'Roll back thy sabl« curtains dark witli age, 
Mysterious pasti divulge thy earliest page.''— Welch. 



SECTION ONE. 

A county, as all know, is a subdivision, or portion of the terri- 
tory of a state, or nation, established for civil or governmental and 
other purposes. It is sometimes known, as in England, by the name 
of "Shire." 

As to the origin of the civil divisions known as the county, such 
as we now have it, it is probable that it was first instituted by King 
Alfred, of England. Blackstone says: "For to him we owe that 
masterpiece of judicial polity, the subdivision of England into tith- 
ings and hundreds, if not into counties." We derive these divisions 
from England. However, similar subdivisions of territory, under 
other names, as province, department, canton, parish — and with 
various civil powers, not just such as ours, existed before Alfred, 
and we find them in some form in all civilized nations, to-day. They 
are a necessity to convenient and orderly government, whether mon- 
archical, or republican. 

As to the establishment and organization of our county, the 
reader is referred to the history of the years, 1855 and 1856. In the 
United States, these subdivisions of territory are known in all the 
states, and in all with similar powers, by the name of "county," ex- 
cept in Louisiana, where they are known as "parishes." 

The county is a great convenience in many respects, but espec- 
ially in the assessment and collection of the revenues of the State, 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 627 

as well as the local revenues, for the support of government— in 
the election of National, State and legislative officers, and the canvas- 
sing of the votes and returns thereof; in the matter of the public 
schools and education; in the administration of justice; in the preser- 
vation of the public peace, the public health, and public order. If 
in all these matters we were under the immediate control, and were 
directed by, and had to report to, officers of the State, at the capi- 
tal, whose surveillance was extended over us, we should soon dis- 
cover that the evils of such a system would be intolerable. 

In this State, a county is a body politic and corporate, and may 
sue and be sued — may purchase and hold real and personal property 
for the use of the county, and make order respecting the same, and 
make contracts in relation to the property and concerns of the 
county, etc. 

The powers of the county, as a body corporate, are exercised 
by the board of county commissioners. 

Counties as organized in the United States, are a valuable, an 
almost indispensible requisite to local self-government, always a 
matter of great importance in the preservation of the rights and 
liberties of the people. The distribution of governmental powers 
relating to most of the practical affairs and interests of life, to the 
people of such districts, brings such power nearer home to them, 
and more under their control, and prevents that centralization and 
concentration of power in a common head, or locality, which leads 
to absolutism. 

We may here reiterate the caution already expressed, that in a 
government such as ours, of, by and for the people — the system of 
self government — we should look with suspicion upon, and severely 
scan any proposition which tends to limit, control, or abridge our 
powers of self government, either in our towns or county. Always 
remembering, however, that we are as much citizens of the state 
and nation as of the county or town. 

Every county is, so to speak, a little government within itself. 
It has a capital city, or town, known as the county seat, or shire 
town; a capitoI building, which is the court house; a limited legisla 
tive and supervisory power in its board of commissioners; its judi- 
cial system — its courts being the district court, of general civil and 
criminal jurisdiction; courts of probate and courts of justices of the 
peace; and its executive and administrative functions, exercised by 
various other county officers — all this, however, existing by and 
subordinate to the laws of the State. 

In the following historical sketches of the several county 
offices, the writer has thought it expedient to set forth, briefly, the 
legal duties and peculiar characteristics of each office, as there are 
many who are not fully informed as to the special duty, powers and 



628 HISTORY <)F 

authority pertaining to these several offices. Such statement may 
assist the elector in selecting proper incumbents for these places. 

And who were the persons named in these sketches, who served 
the public during these yearsy Prom whence came they, and what 
of their lives, labors and achievements? These questions the writer 
has sought to answer in the brief biographical and personal notices 
here given, for they, witla many others, were of the number of those 
who, some in a larger and some in a smaller way, have helped to 
make, and are a part of the history of our county. 

SECTION TWO. 

THE JUDGES AND CLERKS OP THE DISTRICT COURT. 

The district court is a court of general common law jurisdiction 
in civil and criminal cases, and has a clerk and seal. It is presided 
over by one judge. 

When the county was orgapized, it was attached to Blue Earth 
county for judicial purposes, but was by act of the legislature, of 
1857, detached from that county, and became entitled to terms of 
court within the county. 

By act approved May 23d, of the same year, it was placed in 
the third judicial district, comprising a number of counties and the 
judge was authorized to appoint a clerk of court in each county. 

Subsequently, by the constitution of the State, this county was 
placed in the sixth judicial district, where it still remains. By act 
passed August 12th, 1858, the county was given one term of court 
annually, to be held on the first Monday of April of each year. 

By act approved March 5th, 1870, the county was allowed two 
terms annually, commencing the first Tuesday of January and the 
first Tuesday of June. 

The principal duties of the office of the clerk of the district 
court are to keep accurate minutes of the proceedings of each term 
of court — to enter up all judgments, decrees and orders of the court 
— to keep a docket in which the name of each party to a judgment 
is entered alphabetically, with the amount and time of entry of judg- 
ment, to file and preserve all papers pertaining to each case. There 
are other duties also pertaining to the office. 

Marriage licenses ai-e issued by the clerk, and a record of mar- 
riage certificates kept by him, and the births and deaths in the 
county are annually reported to the clerk, and a record kept thereof, 
and he has now very important duties to jierform in relation to the 
public taxes. 

The clerk is paid for his services by fees prescribed by law. 
His term of office is four years, and he is required to take an official 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 629 

oath and give an approved official bond for the faithful performance 
of his duties. He may ajjpoint deputies. 

The first term of the district court of this county was held in 
April, 1859, for a full account of which the reader' is referred to the 
history of that year. 

Let us now say something in reference to the office of judge of 
the district court and the judges. 

The office of judge of the district court is a very important and 
honorable one, and the question as to who shall be placed in the 
office is a matter of perhaps greater concern to the people than 
any other which they are called upon to determine by their votes. 
As is the judge, so will this highest local tribunal be. To fill this 
high office efficiently, in air respects, requires talent and learning of 
a high order, combined with great firmness, independence, pru- 
dence, good sense and incorruptible integrity. It is a position of 
hard, and often perplexing labor, and of grave responsibility. 

The importance of this office to the people, may be shown by a 
very simple illustration. The laws- may be violated, our private 
rights trampled uj^on, our property illegally taken from us, or we 
may be injured in person, or reputation, but we have no place to re- 
sort to but the courts, to vindicate or enforce our rights, or right our 
wrongs. But if the courts are weak, or corrupt, the tools of sharp- 
ers, shysters and villains, if justice is obtained, not freely, but by 
purchase, not completely and without delay, but after harassing 
and expensive waiting, if at all, what then? We may answer 
simply in the homely phrase, which all can understand, "the bot- 
tom of everything has fallen out." It is only in the confidence and 
assurance of the supremacy of the laws and their enforcement by 
able and incorruptible courts, that civilized society lives and moves 
and has a being. Take this away, and anarchy, mob- law and the 
rule of the strong and bloody hand appear. 

The people do well, when called upon to elect their judges, to 
weigh deliberately, the vote they are about to cast. And here, at 
least, party affiliations merely, church or social relations, are not to 
be considered, and political intriguing and trading are wholly out of 
place. Interests, too grave to be thus influenced, are at stake. 
Better make a mistake in any other oifice than in this. Chief Jus- 
tice John Marshall said: 

"The judicial department conies home in its effects to every man's fireside. 
It parses on his property, his reputation, his life, his all. Is it not to the last de- 
gree important that he (a Judge), should be rendered perfectly and completely 
independent with nothing to control him but God and his conscience? The 
greatest scourge * * ever inflicted upon ♦ *■ » a people, was an ignorant, 
corrupt or dependent judiciary." 

At best, human justice, as applied to the infliction of penalties 
in punishment for the perpetration of offenses against the laws, is 



630 HISTORY OF 

always, in some degree, injustice, because of man's incapacity to ap- 
portion and exactly, the punishment to the offense, in any given case. 
For man cannot accurately weigh motives, influences, education, 
provocations, and mental conditions. God alone can perfectly do that. 
Hence it is apparent that our judges should be our wisest, most 
conscientious, discerning, independent and incorruptible men, for 
they are best qualified to administer e.Kact justice, according to 
legal intent. 

It is with unfeigned pleasure that the writer bears testimony to 
the fact that our judicial district has always been highly favored in 
the ability and high character of its judges. Hon. Lewis Branson, 
of Mankato, Minn., was the first judge who presided at our terms 
of court, which office he held until the close of the year, 1864. 
Judge Branson resided at Mankato. where he was engaged in the 
practice of the law until his election to the judgeship. Some time 
after the expiration of his term of office, he removed to California. 
The writer has been unable to obtain any farther facts of Judge 
Branson's personal history. 

Hon. Horace Austin, of St. Peter, Minn., was our next judge. 
He was elected to the office in November, 1864. and resigned Sep- 
tember 30th, 1869. 

Gov. Austin was born in the State of Connecticut, in the year 1831. His 
father was a blacksmith and tautrht his trade to his son Horace. Horace re- 
ceived his education in the common schools and at an academy, and he became 
a school teacher. He studied law four years with Messrs. Bradbury and Morrill, 
of Augusta, Maine. In 1854 he came to the great west, and reached Minnesota 
in 1856, and in March, 1857, located at St. Peter, and entrajred la the practice of 
the law. He served as captain of a company of cavalry, in (Jen. .Sibley's expe- 
ditien against the Indians, in 1863. In 1864 he was elected judge of this dis- 
trict, as we have seen above, and served in that capacity until his resignation. 
He was elected Governor of the State in 1869, and was re-elected Governor in 
1872, for a second term, which he served, after which he retired to private life, 
engaging in agricultural pursuits and milling, at Minnesota Falls. 

Since the above sketch was written. Gov. Austin has engaged 
in business in Minneapolis. 

Hon. M. G. Hanscomb, of St. Peter, was appointed to fill the va- 
cancy arising from the resignation of Judge Austin, and was judge 
of the district from October 1st, 1869, to December 31st, 1869. 

Hon. Franklin H. Waite was elected judge in 1869, and presided 
over our courts for the next five years, when, owing to ill health and 
advancing age, he resigned, after the June term of 1874. 

Judge Waite was born in Windham county, Vermont, in February, 1813. 
When a boy he removed with his parents to Jame«town, New York. lie, early 
in life, showed a great preferance for the profession of law, and after sulticient 
study, was, at the age of tw(>nty-three years, admitted to practice by the 
supreme court of the state of New York. Five years later he was appointed In 
that state, judge of the court of common pleas, which position he held until 
that (illice was atiolished. During President Poll; 'sad ministration, he was post- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 631 

master at Jamestown, N. Y. Afterwards he came west and located at Fond- 
du-lac, Wisconsin, and engaged in the practice of his profession. In 1860 he 
came to Minnesota and located at Man Icato, pursuing his profession. He was 
elected to the State senate of Minnesota in 1867, and in 1869 was elected judge 
of this district as above stated. 

Judge Waite's political affiliations were with the democratic party, and dur- 
ing the war of the rebellion, he was a strong Union man. He was an earnest 
anti-monopolist, and a strong opponent of the national banking law. He died 
at Mankato, March 4th, 1884, at the age of seventy-one years. 

Hon. A. C. Woolfolk, of Mankato, was appointed to fill the va- 
cancy occasioned by the resignation of Judge Waite. He presided 
at the January term in 1875. 

Daniel A. Dickinson, of Mankato, was elected our district judge 
at the general election of 1874, and presided from the commencement 
of his term, except at the January session of 1875, until the June 
term, 1881, when he was appointed by the governor of the State, 
one of the associate justices of the supreme court of the State. At 
the general election of 1881 he was elected by the people to that 
high office. 

Mr. Dickinson was born October 28th, 1839, at Hartford, Vermont. His father 
was a farmer and merchant. When Daniel was about si.x years old his father 
and family removed to Boston, Massachusetts. Daniel's parents dying when 
he was yet (luite young, he spent his youth under the guardianship of his grand- 
father, at West Lebanon, New Hampshire. He entered Dartmouth college in 
1856, and graduated in I860.. He read law at Plattsburgh. New York, and was 
admitted to the bar in 1862, but before commencing practice he enlisted in the 
naval service of the United States, as acting paymaster, and served until 1865. 
He returned to Plattsburgh where he engaged in the practice of his profession 
until 1868. On June 11th, 1867, he was married to Miss Mary E. "Weed, of 
Plattsburgh, New York. In 1868 he came to Mankato, in this State, and en- 
gaged in practice until elected judge, as above stated. On his promotion to the 
supreme court, he removed to St. Paul, the capital, where he now resides. 
Judge Dickinson was re-elected associate ju-Jtice of the supreme court in 1886. 
He was not re-elected in 1892, and has since been engaged in practice. 

Hon. Martin J. Severance succeeded Judge Dickinson, being 
appointed to the office in 1881. At the general election of 1881, he 
was elected judge. 

Mr. Severance was born December 24th, 1826, in Franklin county, Massa- 
chusetts. He received an academical education in his native county, and com- 
menced the study of the law in 1849, and was admitted to the bar in 1853. He 
practiced law in Chicopee, Massachusetts, several years, and then left bis na- 
tive state, coming to Minnesota, and locating at Henderson, Sibley county, 
where he was engaged in practice from 1856 to 1862, most of the time as county 
attorney. He enlisted, in the summer of 1862, as a private soldier, in the mili- 
tary service of the United States, and, after twenty months' service, was elected 
and commissioned captain of his company, and served three years, and was 
mustered out, with his regiment, August 18th, 1865. Returning home, Mr. 
Severance located at Le Sueur, this State, and practiced there until 1870, when 
he removed to Mankato. Judge Severance was married June 16lh, 1858, to 
Miss Elizabeth P. Van Horn, of Chicopee, Massachusetts, and they have three 
children. He was a member of the House of Representatives, of Minnesota, in 
1859 and 1862. He was re-elected judge in 1886, and again in 1892. 



632 HISTORY OF 

THE CLERKS. 

The first clerk of the district court of this county, was John M. 
Jackson. Jr., of Blue EartVi City, who was elected to the office 
October 13th, 1857, and he was also appointed to the office by the 
district judge, March 26th, 1858. He appointed Geo. li. Kingsley 
deputy, October 18th, 1858. He resigned the office January 3d, IHGO. 
Mr. Jackson came to this county in the .sprinj; of 1857, and "made a claim" 
near l!lue Earth City. While a resident here, he was, for a while, enga^'ed in 
the luiTcantlle business, and was deputy postmaster for some time. He was a 
democrat in politics. He left the county at an early day, returninR to his for- 
mer home, Peru, Indiana. 

On the resignation of the office by Mr. Jackson, January 3d, 
1860, Geo. B. Kingsley, on the same day, was appointed clerk by 
the county board. At the next general election, held in November, 
1860, Mr. Kingsley was elected clerk, and served the full term. He 
appointed Wm. Dustin, deputy clerk. 

GEORGE B. KINGSLEY. 

George B. Kingsley was born in Delaware county, state of New York, on 
March 21st, 1831. 

His father, Israel C. Kingsley, was an old resident of Delaware county, and 
engaged, for many years, in the trade of carriage and wagon maker. He had 
a family of eight children. 

(ieorge B. received his education in the common district schools. Hi' 
learned the trade of his father, commencing wlien quite young, and followed it 
for a number of years in his native state, and also in Minnesota. 

He came to the West in 1854, and located at .St. Paul in this State, where 
he remained until the next summer, when he removed to Shakopee, Scott 
county, in this State. Here he remained some thri'e months, when heconcluded 
to return to New York state, but stopped at Ri'd Wing with relatives during 
several months. Here a town site company was formed to go up into the Lake 
Superior region, which he joined, but finally gave up this project. He then 
bought an interest in the town site of Carver, in this state, and went there 
with the intention of staying, but finally sold out his interest. In March, 185(5, 
he mot James B. Wakefield, and concluded to \initc with him and others in 
the project of laying out Blue Earth City, and he came to this county in that 
month, and subseijuently purchased a one-eighth interest in the Itiwn site. 

Mr. Kingsley was the first justice of the peace and the first postmaster in 
the county. In 1857 he was elected a member of the House of representatives 
of the first State legislature. In 1860 he became clerk of the court, as we have 
seen before. 

On the twenty-third day of October, 1862, he was luarried to Miss A. D. 
Nichols. They have had one child, a son, who is now dead. 

Mr. Kingsley, in partnership with H. J. Neal, engaged for some years in the 
manufacture and sale of household furniture at Blue Earth City. 

Having turned his attention to the law, Mr. Kingsley was admitted to the 
bar June l.'ilh, 1870, and engaged, for some years, in the practice of law at Blue 
Earth City. 

After the completion of the railroad to Blue Earth City, Mr. Kingsley, in 
company with several other persons, engaged in the warehouse and wheat buy- 
ing business. 









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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^B^* 



II. J. NEAL. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 633 

Mr. Kingsley has frequently been justice of the peace, town clerk, member 
of the board of town supervisors a number of terms, chairman of the board, a 
member of the city council, president of the council, and a member of the board 
of education, of Blue Earth City independent district. 

Mr. Kingsley and wife are members of the Presljyterian church. His politi- 
cal relations were with the democratic party for many years, but afterwards 
with the prohibition party. His name appears frequently in this history in 
connection with public events. 

Mrs. Kingsley, who has for some years been somewhat interested in literary 
pursuits, published, in 1887, an instructive and well written volume, entitled 
"Heart or Purse," which has been very kindly received and much commended. 

Mr. Kingsley died at Blue Earth City January 8th, 1894. 
John K. Pratt, of Blue Earth City, elected in November, 1864, 
next assumed the duties of the office in January, 1865, and held the 
office until his death. On his demise, James C. Pratt, of Blue Earth 
City, was appointed clerk by Judge Austin, in April, 1868. 

John K. Pratt was a native of Ohio, born in 1837, and emigrated with his 
father to Wisconsin in 1844. He was married in 1857, and came to this county 
in 1858. He died in March, 1868. 

His brother, James C.Pratt, was a Vermonter, born in that state April 23d, 
1833. He emigrated with his father to Wisconsin in 1844, and came to this 
county in March, 1860. He was married to Miss Harriette Catlin, of Wisconsin, 
in August, 1861, and returned to this county the same year. Here he engaged 
in farming for some years, and subsequently removed to Blue Earth City and 
engaged in merchandising, which has been his business ever since. 

Mr. J. C. Pratt appointed as his deputy, Henry J. Neal, of Blue 
Earth City, April 13th, 1868, who performed the duties of the office 
as deputy, until after the next general election, held in November, 
1868, when he was elected clerk. 

Mr. Neal was re-elected in the years 1872, 1876 and 1880. He 
was not a candidate for re-election in 1884. He served as clerk 
nearly seventeen years. 

Mr. Neal was born in the old Granite State (N. H.), at Woltborough, on the 
seventeenth day of May, 1834. His father, Harry Neal, was a farmer and land 
surveyor by occupation. He emigrated to Canada, where he remained a year 
or so, engaged in school teaching, and then removed to Niagara county, state 
of New York, where he died, when Henry was about eight years old. 

Henry received his education in the common schools and learned the trade 
of wheelwright. He emigrated to Wisconsin in 1849, and engaged there some- 
what in the lumber business. 

He was married in 1856 to Miss Esther B. Silliman. Mrs. Neal died Feb-, 
ruary, 1889. Mr. Neal came to this county in April, 1858. and settled at Blue 
Earth City, where he continued to reside until his death. 

He enlisted in October, 1862, in the regiment of the Minnesota Mounted 
Hangers, and was with Gen. Sibley in the expedition against the Indians. In 
August. 1864, he againenlisted in Company "C," Eleventh (11) Regiment Minn. 
Infantry, and became first lieutenant of the company. He went south and 
served until the close of the war, being mustered out with his regiment in 
July, 1865. 

On his return home he engaged in the manufacture and sale of household 
furniture, for some years. He was chairman of the board of town supervisors, 
held the office of justice of the peace for some time, and was a member of the 



634 HISTOIiY OF 

hoard (if county coiuruisskinLTs pearly two terras, of which board he was chair- 
man in the years 1867 and 1868, and was clerli of the district court as above 
stated. After leaving the otllce of cleric, he engaged in the insurance and real 
estate business until May, 1891, when failing hi'Slth required his retirement. 
ITe died .lanuary 27th, 1890, at .Jacl<sotiville, Florida, where he had resorted for 
several winters on account of the mildness of the climate. Mr. Neal was a 
member of the Masonic fraternity for many years, and was always a republican 
in political sentin)ent. He was for four years chairman of the Republican Con- 
gressional Committee of the second district. 

SECTION THREE. 

THE PROBATE COURT AND THE JUDGES. 

There is established, in each organized county in this State, a 
probate court, which is a court of record, having a seal. The pro- 
bate court has exclusive jurisdiction, in the first instance, to take 
the proof of wills, to grant and revoke letters, testamentary and 
of administration; to direct and control the conduct, and settle the 
accounts of administrators and executors; to eaforce the payment 
of debts and legacies, and the distribution of the estates of intestates; 
to order the sale, and dispose of the personal and real property of 
deceased persons; to ai^point and remove guardians, and direct and 
control their conduct and settle their accounts, and to take the care 
and custody of the persons and estates of insane persons, habitual 
drunkards and spendthrifts, on proper application. The court is 
invested by law with ample powers to execute its duties. This 
court is open at all times for the transaction of business, but a stated. 
or regular session, is held the first Monday of each month. Full 
and complete records of all the proceedings, orders and decrees of 
the court, are required to be kept. The judge of probate court holds 
his office for two years, and he is required to take an oath of office, 
and give an approved bond for the faithful performance of his 
duties. He is authorized to appoint a clerk of court. The judges 
were formerly paid by fees for their services, by the persons inter- 
ested in estates, but, by act of legislature, passed in 1875, it was 
made a salaried office. The judge of probate is also invested with 
the jurisdiction to hear informations, or complaints, as to insane 
persons, residing in the county, to direct their examination and 
commitment, if found to be insane, to the hospitals for the insane. 
And this is a most delicate, difficult, important, and, withal, a very 
unhappy official duty, and recjuires the utmost care and circumspec- 
tion, that no errors may occur, and no wrong may be done to any 
one. Summarizing briefly, it is sufficient to indicate the importance 
of this office, and the interest we each have in it. to say that our 
business and estates, whether much or little, are left, and often left 
very suddenly, and in much confusion, mainly, for final settlement 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 635 

and disposition, when we cannot personally be present to explain 
our affairs or protect our rights, or the riglits of those who survive 
us, to the ability, integrity and sound judgment of the judge of the 
probate court. 

Jas. B. Waliefield, of Blue Earth City, was the first judge of 
probate of this county. He was appointed by the county board, 
April 6th, 1857, and was elected judge at the general election held 
in October of the same year. He resigned the office on the fourth 
day of November, 1857, and the office became vacant. 

The first estate brought before the court was that of one Al- 
phonso Brooks, who was killed in a quarrel about a claim in October, 
1856, a more full account of which will be found in the history of 
that year. 

It was provided by the law in force in 1858, that "in case the 
judge of probate is unable to act, or if the office be vacant, then the 
said court must be held by the district attorney of the county. 

W. W. Knapp, appointed district (now county) attorney, April 
5th, 1858, performed the duties of judge of probate, until the next 
general election. 

At the general election held in October, 1858, Guy K. Cleve- 
land, of Winnebago City, was elected judge. He resigned theoiiice 
January 2d, 1860. 

Mr. Cleveland came to this county in 1857, or early in 1858. He was a law- 
yer by profession. He was elected representative in the State legislature for 
this district in 1859, and State senator in I860, for two years. He subsequently 
removed to Mankato, where ho became the proprietor and editor of a weekly news- 
paper, which he controlled for many years. He is now dead. 

Wm. J. C. Robertson, of Verona, appointed by the county board 
January 2d, 1860, succeeded Judge Cleveland. 

Mr. Robertson was born in Albany, state of New York, December 12th, 
1806. His father was a mason by trade. He died when William was but four 
years old. When about sixteen years old, William was apprenticed to learn the 
blacksmith's trade, and he followed this occupation some thirty-flve years. His 
education was obtained in the common schools of the county. 

He accompanied his mother and family on their removal to Green county. 
N. Y., and from thence, in 1817, to Delaware county in that state. While here 
he was married to MissMarthaP. Maxson. He removed to Chemung, N. Y., and 
In 1844 he emigrated with his t'aniily to Fon du Lac county, Wisconsin, and re- 
mained there until 1857, in the spring of which year, he came to this county 
and settled on a farm in the town of Verona. He had, however, visited the 
county in the autumn of 1856, and looked out his location. Here he engaged 
in farming, until in December, 1862, when he removed to Blue Earth City, 
where he has resided ever since. 

While in Wisconsin, Mr. Robertson was a town and county supervisor, and 
a justice of the peace, some thirteen years, and for a time postmaster at Rock 
River. He has been a town and county supervisor, in this county, (in 1859 and 
1860), judge of probate in 1860, as we have seen above, and sheriff of the county 
in 1864 and 1865. 



63t5 HfSTOny OF 

Mr. and Mrs. Uobortson have been for nearly half a century, members of 
the M. E. church. Mr. R. was, in the early part tif life, a democrat, and his 
first vote for president was cast for Andrew Jackson. lie became a whij;, after 
Mr. \nn Huren's eh'Ction, and when the republican party arose, he became a 
reiHiblican. 

Mr. and Mrs. Robertson have had einht children, all of whom are living 
but two. Mr. Robertson died at Blue Earth City in 1887. 

Amos Preston, of Elmore, elected in November, 1860, was our 
next judge of probate. Heretofore the business of the probate court 
had been very limited, owing the sparce settlement of the county, 
but it now began to increase and became considerable, during the 
incumbencj' of Mr. Preston. Judge Preston was re-elected for a 
second term in November, 1862. At the general election in Novem- 
ber, 1864, George Hart, of Delavan, (then Guthrie) was elected judge, 
but declined to accept the office, and Judge Preston held over until the 
next general election, November, 1865, when he was again elected 
and served until the close of 1867. 

Mr. Preston was a New Yorker. He was born in Oneida county, March 
16th, 1810. His father was a farmer. Amos was raised on a farm, and he was 
engaged in business as a farmer during life, thuugh he was for some live years 
engaged (luitc extensively in lumbering in his native county, in connection 
with his farming interests. Hiseducation was such as could be obtained in the 
common schools of the time. At twenty-one years of age he struck out Into the 
world for himself. He was married in 1834 to Miss Maria Wilson. They have 
had nine children, three of whom are now dead. In 1852, the great California 
gold fever being at its height, Mr. Preston concluded to try his fortunes in that 
ili-stant land and went there by sea. Here he remained about three years, and 
then returned home and emigrated from thence to Delaware county, Iowa, where 
he tarried abouta year, and in IS")? came to this county. Here he took a claim, 
broke up some land and bought some timber during the summer, and in the 
fall he brought in his family, and remained here since. Mr. Preston was origin- 
ally a whig, but was a republican since the organization of that party. Mrs. 
Preston died in 1881. Mr. Preston never connected himself with the church, 
but his wife was a member of the Presbyterian church and four of his chidren 
are church members. Mr. Preston has frequently held town offices and was for a 
number of years, a member of the county board of which he was chairman in 
1875. He sold out his property interests in this county in 188G, and went to Cali- 
fornia. He sul)sequently returned to Minnesota and resided with his son-in- 
law, Harrison Pratt, at Minneapolis, until his death, which occurred in 1888. 

A. P. De La Vergne, of Winnebago City, elected in November, 
1867, succeeded Judge Preston. He held the office until July, 
1869, when he resigned and removed to the state of Iowa, where he 
has since died. 

.ludge De La Vergne was born in France, about the year 1S16. He came 
to America when a child, to the state of New York. He came to Minne- 
sota and settled at Le Sueur, Minn., in territorial times. He was a shoemaker 
by trade and subseciuently a lawyer by profession, and practiced at Le Sueur. 
He was a member of the Lower House, seventh session, (representing the tenth 
district in the territorial legislature, which assembled January 2d, 1856. He 
became a resident of this county about 1864, locating at Winmbago City. He 
was justice of the peace of Winnebago City some four year>. He was elected 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 637 

court commissioner of this county in 1867 and qualitied. Judge De La Vergne 
was a ruarried man, but his wife did not reside with him while he lived in this 
county. 

After the resignation of Judge De La Vergne, J. A. Kiester, of 
Blue Earth City, was, on the second day of August, 1869, appointed 
judge by Gov. Marshall. Heretofore no permanent records in books, 
such as the law requires, had been kept of the proceedings of the 
court. The business and papers during the course of years, had 
greatly accumulated, and were in much confusion and disorder when 
the matter being called to the attention of the county commission- 
ers, the following resolution was adopted September 7th, 1869. 

Resolved, That J. A. Kiester, Judge of the Probate Court, be and is hereby 
employed and authorized by this board, to arrange and flle the papers pertain- 
ing to the several cases in said court, in proper order, and write up the minutes 
of the proceedings of said court, make the records required by law of the ap- 
pointment of executors, administrators and guardians, in suitable books to be 
provided by the county, and that for such services he shall receive such reason- 
able compensation from the county as may hereafter be allowed by this 
board." 

By virtue of this resolution, and the provisions of the statute 
authorizing judges to complete all unfinished business of the court, 
the duties assigned in the above resolution were performed. 

At the ensuing general election, held in November, 1869, Mr. 
Kiester was elected judge, and was re-elected in the years 1871, 1873, 
1875, 1877, 1879, 1881, 1883, 1886 and 1888. 

A brief biographical notice of Mr. Kiester will be found in an- 
other part of this work. 



SECTION FOUR. 

THE COURT COMMISSIONERS. 

Some one who appears to have been a little Irritated at the ac- 
tion of a court commissioner, writes in a papier : 

■'He was reduced to the ludicrous necessity of applying for his writ to that 
anomalous oflBcer— a sort of mysterious fifth wheel of our judicial system— a 
court commissioner, for his writ. What a court commissioner is for, probably 
no one ever knew before. No one ever heard before of a court commissioner 
doing anything. The office is indeed created by statute. But no salary is at- 
tached to it, and it is usually filled by some obscure fledgling of an attorney 
who is learned in the law only by a courteous professional fiction. The very 
existence of such an office is unknown to the great majority of people, except as 
they are reminded of it once every three years by seeing it figure on the printed 
tickets over the name of some one that nobody knows, as a candidate for its 
obscure and empty honors. It has been a popular mystery what was the use or 
functions of a court commissioner. It now turns out that his chief use is to do 
things in the judicial line which no court could be persuaded to undertake,- to 
assume powers which the superior courts have uniformly decided to be beyond 
their province. 'For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.' " 



638 UIHTOUY OF 

By the statutes, "coui-t commissioners shall be men learned in 
the law, and shall have and may exercise the judicial powers of a 
judge of the district court at chambers." More definitely stated, a 
court commissioner may grant writs of attachment, writs of in- 
junction, writs of habeas corpus, approve bail bonds, recogniz- 
ances, and appeal bonds in certain cases, and various other duties 
which need not be named here. He has also power to administer 
oaths and take acknowledgements. His term of office was, formerly, 
three years, and he is required to take an oath of office and give an 
approved bond in the sum of §52,000. He is required to keep a record 
of all proceedings had before him. By the act of August 4th, 1858, 
the powers of court commissioner were conferred upon the judges 
of probate. The law was soon changed, however, and the office 
was made a separate one. Yet from the fact that the two offices 
had been previously combined, the practice grew up in this, as in 
many other counties, of electing the judges of probate, as court 
commissioners. A very correct view of the true character of this 
office is stated in the following quotation: 

"It is well known that the peniuisitos afforded by the position are incon- 
siderable— amountinff, practically, to nothing at all, hence, on that ground, no 
one could desire to hold the olllce, hut it i.s nevertheless, one of much responsi- 
bility, and requires special fltuess in the incumbent. The duties are co-exten- 
sive with those of a District Judge— sitting at chambers, or in vacation, for 
the hearing and determining of applications and motions, and for the issuance 
of writs and orders— hence it will be seen that even though the place is not a 
lucrative one, the honor which it confers, and the responsiliility which it de- 
volves, are very considerable." 

At the general election held in November, 1860, J. A. Kiester 
was elected court commissioner, and on the third day of September. 
1862, resigned the office. Geo. D. McArthur was elected to the 
office in November, 1862, but did not qualify. Amos Preston was 
elected in 1863, and George Hart was elected in 1864, and Reuben 
Waite, in 1866, neither of whom qualified, and the office remained 
vacant. At the general election of 1867, A. F. DeLaVergne, of 
Winnebago City, was elected and qualified. Up to this time no bus- 
iness had ever been transacted by the commissioner, and there was 
but one transaction during the term of Mr. DeLaVergne. The 
office soon became vacant again by the resignation of Mr. De La- 
Vergne. At the general election of 1869, J. A. Kiester was again 
elected to the office, and as the public convenience had come to re- 
quire that some one should hold the office and perform its duties, he 
accepted it. He was re-elected in the years 1872 and 1875, 1879 and 
1882, and resigned the office in March, 1885, having held it over 
fifteen consecutive years. The court commissioner is paid by fees 
prescribed by law, and have amounted from 0, to as great a sum, in 
some years, as forty dollars. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 639 

SECTION FIVE. 

THE COUNTY ATTORNEYS. 

The county attorney is the law officer of the county, as the at- 
torney general of the State, and the attorney general of the United 
States are the law officers of the State and general governments. 
His general duties, as prescribed by statute, are to appear as at- 
torney in all cases where the county is a party, to give opinions 
and advice to the county officers upon all matters in which the 
county is interested; to attend all terms of the district court and 
other courts of criminal jurisdiction, and attend all preliminary 
examinations of criminals, when the magistrate so requests him, 
and furnishes him with a copy of the complaint; to attend before 
the grand jury and give them advice; draw presentments and indict- 
ments, examine witnesses, and issue process for witnesses; prose- 
cute all presentments and indictments, and attend all coronor's 
inquests, when requested. 

He is required to take an oath of office, and give bond to the 
board of commissioners. He is paid for his services by salary fixed 
by the county board. His term of office is two years. 

Prior to the admission of the State into the Union, the county 
attorney was named district attorney. 

It may be well to observe that the supposition that "any lawyer 
is good enough for county attorney" is a stupid mistake. A negli- 
gent, dishonest or incapable attorney may involve the county in 
great expense and fruitless lawsuits, and, in the administration of 
criminal justice, may betray the county and the public, or utterly 
fail in the prosecution of offenders, to the great disparagement of 
the public peace and good order. 

The first county attorney of this county was, probably, James 
B. Wakefield, who may have been, and very probably was appointed 
to that office, but no record evidence of the fact can now be found. 

"Wm. W. Knapp, of Blue Earth City, was appointed to the office 
by the county board, April 5th, 1858, and duly qualified, and acted 
in that capacity a short time. 

WILLIAM W. KNAPP. 

Mr. Knapp was a New Yorker by birth, and came to this county in 1857. 
He dealt somewhat in land, and was a school teacher, surveyor and attorney. 
After remaining for several years he went to Missouri, thence to Pike's Peak, 
and from thence to Idaho, and finally returned to the state of New York, to his 
old home, where he married, and then returned to Minnesota, and located at 
Faribault, Rice county, whore.he engaged in the hardware trade. From thence 
he removed, after some years, (in 1870) to Mason City, Iowa, where he resided 
at the time of his death. 

He died January 29th, 1890. 



G40 HISTO/IY or 

The office soon becoming vacant, we find that Jo. L. Weir, of 
Winnebago City, was appointed attorney January 4th, 1859, and as- 
sumed the duties of tlie office. 

Jo. L. Wi'ir was born in Robertson county, Tennessee, in 1821. He received 
his education in the common schools and at the Franklin college, Tennessee, 
which he attended for some time, but did not graduate. He studied law in his 
native county and was there admitted to the bar, and practiced his profession a 
short time. In 1857, in company with his brothers, George and Daniel, he came 
to this county and settled near Winnebago City, where they took lands imder 
the pre-emption law. Mr. Weir engaged to some I'Xtent in the practice of the 
law In this county, but gave his attention principally to farming. I)iirlng the 
"school examiner" system in this county, he held that offlce for .soiuc time in his 
commissioner district. Mr. Weir never married. In 1867 he returned to Ten- 
nessee, where he now resides. 

On the fifth day of March. 1860, the county board declared the 
office again vacant, and by resolution authorized the county officers 
to employ attorneys when necessary. 

Mr. Wakefield now re appears as the law officer of the county, 
having been elected attorney in November, IBGO. and qualified No- 
vember 17th. Norman B. Hyatt, of Blue Earth City, editor of the 
Blue Earth City Neivs, elected to the office in October. 1861, succeeded 
Mr. Wakefield. 

Mr. Hyatt, it is believed, came to this county early in 1861. He engaged in 
the practice of law at Blue Earth City, and subsequently became interested in 
the Blue Earth City Newn, of which paper he was the editor for some time. He 
afterwards enlisted in the military service of the United States, and became 
the captain of his company. After retiring from the service, he finally located 
at Webster City, Iowa, where he engaged in the practice of his profession. 

The office becoming vacant by the enlistment of Mr. Hyatt, the 
county board, on the twenty-eighth day of May. 1863, appointed 
Andrew C Dunn.of Winnebago City, to fill the vacancy. At the next 
general election held November 3d. 1863, Mr. Dunn was elected for 
a full term which he served. 

Mr. Dunn was born in New York City, October 9th, 1834. He received his 
education mainly from his father, Nathaniel Dunn, who was for many years a 
noted educator, at one time principal of Wilbraham Academy, Mass., and for 
many years professor of chemistry in Rutger's Female College, N. Y. 

Andrew commenced reading law under the direction of Edward Standford, 
Esq., of New York City, at the early age of fifteen years. He came to Minne- 
.sota in April, 1854, and was admitted to the bar by the Territorial .Supreme 
Court. practic3d a short titue at .Sauk Rapids, and then located at St. Paul. 

He came to this county in 1856, and he, with several others, founded the 
village of Winnebago City, being one of the original town site proprietors, and 
built the first house in that village. In 1858 Mr. Dunn was one of the special 
commissioners, appointed by the governor, to divide this county into towns and 
name them. On New Year's day, 1859, he was united in marriage to Miss D. J. 
Smith, of Blue Earth county, in this Slate. Seven children have come to thetu, 
but only three of whom are now living. 

Mr. Dunn, since his first location in this county, has made the practice of 
the law his chief business and life work, and he is the oldest resident practicing 
lawyer at the bar of this county. 




A. C. m'.NN. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 641 

He was secretary of the tlrst State Senate of this State, (which convened in 
December, 1857). In 1863 he was one of the commissioners appointed to take 
the vote of the soldiers then in active service at the south. . 

Mr. Dunn was chief clerk of the House of Representatives of this State in 
the years 1864, 1865 and 1866, and was elected representative of this legislative 
district in 1880, and attended the memorable sessions of 1881, and was one of 
the counsel on the part of the House in the impeachment proceedings had 
against Judge E. St. J. Cox. He has, from time to time, held various local 
offices, and has always taken a large interest in the public affairs of the State, 
and especially of the county 

Mr. Dunn was a democrat in early life, and during the rebellion was a union 
democrat and has since affiliated with the republican party. He and his family 
are members of tbe Methodist Episcopal Church, and for many years "Mr. Dunn 
has been superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday school at Winne- 
bago City. 

At the general election of 1865, Mr. Wakefield was again elected 
attorney, and also representative for the twentieth district, in the 
State legislature. He accepted the latter office, and the former be- 
came again vacant. 

On the third day of January, 1866, J. A. Kiester, of Blue Earth 
City, was appointed attorney by the county board, and was re-ap- 
pointed on the nineteenth of March following, and served until the 
next January. In the meantime, Mr. Wakefield, elected attorney in 
November, 1866, apj)ears for the fourth and last time in this par- 
ticular branch of the public service, but having been also elected 
State senator, at the same election, he accepted the latter ofiice, 
leaving the attorneyship to be otherwise provided for. A bio- 
graphical notice of Mr. Wakefield will be found elsewhere in this 
work. 

On the third day of January, 1867, Mr. Kiester resigned the 
office, and it became again vacant. A brief biographical sketch of 
Mr. Kiester will be found in another part of this book. 

On the resignation of Mr. Kiester, John H. Sprout, of Blue 
Earth City, was appointed (January 3d, 1867) attoi'ney, and immedi- 
ately qualified. 

At the next general election, held in November, 1867, he was 
elected for a full term, and was re-elected in the years 1869, 1871, 
and 1873, and held office during nine consecutive years. 

JOHN H. SPROUT. 

Mr. Sprout was a native of Attica, Wyoming county. New York, where he 
was born December 16th, 1836. 

His father, Col. Hosea B. Sprout, a resident of Attica for fifty years, was a 
farmer by occupation. John H. obtained his education in the common schools 
and at Warsaw Academy, and Genessee Wyoming Seminary. He subsequently 
engaged in school teaching in his native county. 

In 1857 he emigrated to Dodge county, Minnesota, and engaged in farming 
for awhile. In the fall of 1857 he went to Columbia county, Wisconsin, where 
he read law with Hon. O. C. Howe, until the next spring, when he returned to 



641' iijstohy of 

Minni'Sdia atiain, and engai,''"'! soiuewhat in farrainij. In tho autumn of 1850 
he ri'lurnetl to Wisconsin, anii ('tiKii(j;o(l iu sciiool leachin^r foratioul tlirci' years, 
after wliicli lie cauie to Minnesota, and ennajred in fariuin); for about a yearand 
a half, and tlien went lo Juneau, Wisconsin, where he resumed the study of 
law under the direction of Messrs. BiUintfhurst, Lewis and Friebert, and then 
attended, for some time, Michit^an University law school. He was married, in 
18()1, to Miss Caliste L. Nich(»ls, of Djd(.'e county. Wisconsin. lie was admitted 
to the liar in tlie last nanieil county, wliere he commenced the practice of law, 
and in tlie latter part of the year came to this county, locating at Ulue Earth 
City, where he has since resided, engaged all the time in the practice of his 
profession. He was county attorney, as aljove stated, and has been justice of 
the peace a number of years, twice president of the council of Blue Earth City, 
and, also, president and member of the board of education at Blue Earth City, 
a number of terms. 

For several years he was postmaster at Blue Earth City. Mr. Sprout is a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he is a republican in politics. 

M. W. Green, of Wells, elected in 1875, succeeded Mr. Sprout. 
Mr. Green was elected in 1877 for a second term, which he served. 
Mr. Green, after the expiration of his term of office, removed to 
Fargo. D. T., where he has continued in the practice of the law. 

Morton S. Wilkinson, of Wells, elected in November, 1879, was 
our next county attorney. He held the office one term. 

Mr. Wilkinson was born at .Skaneateles, N. Y., on the twenty-second of 
January, 1819. He received an academic education, and taught school some six 
months. He read law at Skaneateles, and was admitted tti the bar in 1842. He 
came west and settled at Eaton Rapids, Mich., where he practiced law till 1847, 
and then came to Stillwater, Minn. Mr. Wilkinson was twice married. His 
first wife died in Michigan, his second in Minnesota. 

He was elected to the tlrsl territorial legislature, which assembled in the 
fall of the year, 1849. He made St. Paul his home from that time, engaged in 
the practice of the law, until 1857, when he moved to Mankato, Minn. About 
this time he was appointed, with others, to draft and report a code of laws for 
the State, which work he did in 1859. 

The legislature of 1859 elected Mr. Wilkinson United States senator for 
the State of Minnesota for six years, which terra he served. After the expira- 
tion of his term in the senate he was (in ISfiS) elected representative in congress 
and served one term. Subsequently he represented Blue Earth county, in the 
State senate, in the years 1874, 1875, 1876 and 1877. 

Senator Wilkinson came lo this county in 1878, and located on a farm near 
Wells, but has all along continued in the practice of the law, appearing occa- 
sionally in our district courts, and also, lately, before the supreme court of the 
United States, at Washington, D. C, in a number of important suits. 

He was a republican in politics until late in his career, when he affiliated 
with the democrats. He died at Wells, February 4th, 1894. 




J. H. SPKOUT. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 643 

SECTION SIX. 

THE BOARD OP COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. — THE OFFICIAL, DUTIES 
OP THE BOARD AND THE NAMES OP THE PERSONS WHO HAVE 
BEEN MEMBERS OP THE BOARD TO THE CLOSE OP THE YEAR 1879. 

The board of county commissioners constitutes the legislature 
of the county. As defined by law, the duties of the board, briefly 
expressed, are to examine and settle all accounts of the receipts and 
expenditures of the county, the care of the county property, the 
management of all the county funds, and the transaction of all the 
business pertaining to the county, except as otherwise provided 
by law. 

The board has power to set off, organize and vacate towns, and 
change the boundaries thereof; organize and change school districts, 
lay out roads, build bridges, levy certain taxes, make appointments 
to fill vacancies in various offices, and, in general, to supervise all 
the interests and transact all the business of the county, not specially 
otherwise provided for by law. It is also the special duty of the 
board to attend to the equalization of the assessments for tax pur- 
poses, and to all matters relating to the poor of the county. At the 
annual session of each year, held in January, the commissioners 
elect one of their number cliairman for the year, whose duty it is to 
preside at their meetings. The term of office of a county commis- 
sioner was, for many years, three years. (It is now four). They 
receive pay at the rate of three dollars per day, for each day neces- 
sarily employed in doing the county business, and ten cents per mile 
travel. The board, in its duties, somewhat resembles a court, and 
is sometimes called the "commissioners' court," and is also known 
as "the county board." The county auditor is exqfflcio clerk of this 
small legislature, and arranges and presents much of the business 
to the board for consideration. He keeps accurate minutes of all 
the proceedings of the board in a book denominated tlie "county 
records." 

1856. The first board of county commissioners of this county 
was appointed by the governor of the territory, on the organization 
of the county, their commissions bearing date February 25th, 1856. 
This board was composed of the following gentlemen: James B. 
Wakefield, chairman, Henry T. Stoddard and Moses Sailor; clerk, 
Samuel V. Hibler, then register of deeds. 

1857. For this year, the members of the boai'd were: William 
M. Scott, chairman, Moses Sailor and C. W. Wilson; clerks, J. B. 
Wakefield and J. A. Kiester, 

1858. C. W. Wilson, chairman, Moses Sailor and E. Crosby; 
clerk, J. A. Kiester. 



644 HISTORY OF 

1859. At the sessioa of the legislature held in August, 1858, an 
act was passed abolishing the board of county commissioners and 
enacting the "supervisor system." By this system the several chair- 
men of township boards of supervisors, were ex-officio members of, 
and constituted the board of supervisors of the county. The duties 
of this board were the same, identically, as those of the former 
commissioners. These supervisors were elected in the several 
towns, on the first organization of the towns, October 20th, 1858. 
The new board met and organized .January 3d, 1859, and was com- 
posed of the following named gentlemen: James L. McCrery, chair- 
man, Jo. L. Weir, Amos Preston, J. B. Wakefield, S. W. Myrrick, 
W. J. C. Robertson ; clerk. A. Bonwell. 

The regular annual town meetings were held in the several towns 
in April of this year (1859) and resulted in the election of the follow- 
ing supervisors: Geo. H. Goodnow, chairman. Thomas Blair. P. C. 
Seely, S. L. Rugg, Amos Preston, J. L. McCrery, W. J. C Robert- 
son, J. A. Kiester and Lorenzo Merry; clerk, A. Bonwell. 

1860. Geo. H. Goodnow. chairman. P. C. Seely, Thomas Blair, 
S. L. Rugg, Amos Preston, J. A. Keister, W. J. C. Robertson, Lo- 
renzo Merry and J. L. McCrery; clerk, A. Bonwell. 

By act of the legislature approved February 28th. 1860. the 
supervisor system was abolished, and the old commissioner 
system was re-established, as the supervisor system was found 
to be entirely too expensive and cumbrous, especially in the thinly set- 
tled counties. The new law went into effect on the election at the town 
meetings of this year (1860) held in April. In counties having less 
than eight hundred votes, the county was entitled to three commis- 
sioners, and counties having over eight hundred votes, were entitled 
to five. 

This county was at the time entitled to but three commissioners, 
and the three commissioners elected, who were chosen at large 
were: Thomas Blair, chairman, J. H. Welch and Albin Johnson; 
clerk, A. Bonwell. 

The last meeting of the supervisors was held in March, and the 
first meeting of the new board, above mentioned, was held in June 
of this year. 

At the general election in November, 1860, commissioners were 
elected again, and since that year, the commissioners are always 
elected by districts at the general election in November, of the year 
when the term for any district expires. As the result of this elec- 
tion, we have for 

1861. Jesse H. Dunham, chairman, Thomas Blair and Wm. M. 
Scott. Clerk, A. Bonwell. 

Mr. Wakefield had been elected, but after the first meeting 
resigned, when Mr. Scott was appointed in his place. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 645 

1862. Thomas Blair, chairman, Ezra M. Ellis and J. H. Dun- 
ham. Clerk, A. Bonwell. 

1863. J. H. Dunham, chairman, Thomas Blair and Albin John- 
son. Clerk, A. Bonwell. 

Mr. Ellis had been elected, but did not accept the office, and 
Mr. Johnson was appointed to fill the vacancy. 

1864. Thomas Blair, chairman, Allen Shultis and Wm. M. Scott. 
Clerk. A. Bonwell. 

1865. Allen Shultis, chairman, Thomas Blair and Wm. M. Scott. 
Clerk, P. W. Cady. 

It appearing by the election of 1864, that the county had over 
eight hundred legal voters, the commissioners, on the fifth day of 
September, 1865, divided the county into five commissioner districts 
and at the general election held in November, 1865, five commission- 
ei's were elected, so we have for the years: 

1866. Allen Shultis, chairman, H. J. Neal, J. R. Sisson, J. 
Claggett and C. S. Kimball. Clerk, F. W. Cady. 

1867. H. J. Neal, chairman, J. R. Sisson, A. R. More, Sr., Jas. 
Crays and J. Claggett. Clerk, F. W. Cady. 

1868. H. J. Neal, chairman, W. J. Robinson, A. R. More, Sr., 
Jas. Crays and J. Claggett. Clerk, P. W. Cady. 

1869. A. R. More, Sr., chairman, J. A. Latimer, J. Claggett, 
W. J. Robinson and H. J. Neal. Clerk, W. W. White. 

1870. A. R. More, Sr., chairman, H. J. Neal, J. A. Latimer, W. 
J. Robinson and J. Claggett. Clerk, W. W. White. 

1871. A. Bonwell, chairman, J. Claggett, J. A. Latimer, A. R. 
More, Sr., and L. C. Seaton. Clerk, W. W. White. 

1872. A. R. More, Sr. , chairman, David Catlin, Henry Sellen, 
W. W. Potter and L. C. Seaton. Clerk, W. W. White. \ 

1873. W. W. Potter, chairman, David Catlin, J. A. Dean, L. C. 
Seaton and Henry Sellen. Clerk, W. W. White. 

1874. W. W. Potter, chairman, David Catlin, J. A. Dean, Henry 
Sellen and Rob't Andrews. Clerk, W. W. White. 

1875. Amos Preston, chairman, David Catlin, Rob't Andrews, 
E. H. Hutchins and F. W. Temple. Clerk, W. W. White. 

1876. P. W. Temple, chairman, Amos Preston, Rob't Andrews, 
David Catlin and E. H. Hutchins. Clerk, W. W. White. 

1877. P. W. Temple, chairman, Amos Preston, David Catlin, E. 
H. Hutchins and J. R. Sisson. Clerk, W. W. White. 

1878. A. H. Bullis, chairman, David Catlin, J. R. Sisson, P. E. 
Cary and H. A. Woolery. Clerk, W. W. White. 

1879. A. H. Bullis, chairman, David Catlin, J. R. Sisson, F. E. 
Cary and H. A. Woolery. Clerk, W. W. White. 



G46 HISTORY OF 

SECTION SEVEN. 

THE COUNTY AUDITORS AND THEIR OFFICE. 

Prior to January 3d, 1859, when the act of August 13th 1858, went 
into effect in this county, the duties of the auditor were performed 
by the register of deeds, who was then ex-officio clerk of the board 
of county commissioners. By reference to the history of the office ' 
of register of deeds, it will be seen who performed the dulies of 
auditor prior to the above date. 

The duties of the county auditor are multifarious and often in- 
tricate and perplexing, requiring a clear head, great patience and 
constant attention. 

He is required to keep an accurate account current with the 
treasurer of the several state, county, town, school district, road, 
poor, and all other funds, make out all the tax duplicates, draw or 
attest all warrants drawn on the treasury for funds, take charge of 
and direct the assessment of taxes and Iteep the tax records. 

The auditor is ex-officio clerk of the board of county commis- 
sioners, and as such is required to keep an accurate record of their 
proceedings, and carefully keep and preserve all documents, books, 
maps, records and other papers and files required by law to be kept 
in his office. 

The term of office of auditor is two years, formerly commencing 
in March, but now in January, and before entering upon his office 
he is required to take an official oath and give an approved bond in 
such sum as the commissioners may fix, not less than two thousand 
dollars, nor more than twenty thousand dollars, for the faithful 
performance of his duties. He may appoint deputies. The auditor 
was formerly paid by salary, but he now receives as salary, a per- 
centage on the aggregate assessments of the county. 

The auditor is usually considered the principal financial officer 
of the county — its accountant, or boolckeeper, and in many respects 
its business agent. It may be remarked that negligence, inefficiency 
or dishonesty in the auditor may lead to intermidable confusion in 
the accounts and business of the county, and the affairs of individ- 
uals, and open a wide door to fraud and public plundering. 

By the act above mentioned of August 13th. 1858, the county 
board was authorized to appoint a clerk, who, at the option of the 
board, might be the register of deeds, or any other person. At the 
organization of the board, January 3d, 1^59, Arthur Bonwell was 
appointed clerk. By said act it was enacted that the clerks there- 
after should be known as county auditors, aud should perform all 
the duties of auditor performed prior thereto by the register of 
deeds. Mr. Bonwell was thus the first auditor — eonomine— of this 




A. BON WELL. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 647 

county. At the general election held Octobei- 11th, 1859, he was 
elected auditor. 

By act approved March 6th, 1860, the office of auditor was re- 
enacted, so to speak, new duties added, and he was made by 
virtue of his office, the permanent clerk of the board of county com 
missioners. When Mr. Bonwell took the office under the new laws 
relating thereto, there was much to be done to get the office into 
proper working order. A full set of tax and account books were to 
be opened, the papers, books and accounts pertaining to the office 
under the old system, arranged, and a system, or order of business 
for the future established, in conformity to the new laws, all of 
which was done. Mr. Bonwell was r^-elected auditor in 1860, and 
in 1862, serving until March, 1865. 

Arthur Bonwell was born in Brown county. State of Ohio, on the fourth 
day of July, 182.5. His father was a farmer. In 1829 his father and family 
removed to Hyland county, Ohio, and in 1836 removed to Tippecanoe 
county. State of Indiana. The subject of this sketch received his edu- 
cation in the commoa schools. He has, from early youth, been a stu- 
dious reader. He was brought up in the occupation oC a farmer, but com- 
menced teaching school when about nineteen years old, and taught many terms 
during his life. His health has never been very robust, and many times he has 
been in feeble condition for considerable periods of time, and this fact has had 
much to do with shaping his life. When about twenty-two years old, he went 
on a flat-boat expedition, to New Orleans, La., and returned as a deck passen- 
ger, on board a steamboat. In 1850, Mr. Bonwell, then twenty-five years old, 
went overland to California, where he remained until 1856, engaged in mining, 
trading, and ranching. In the latter year, he returned to the States, in July 
and August, by the isthmus route and steamship, landing in New York City, 
and from thence he journeyed to Butler county, Iowa, to which place his father 
had removed during his absence. After remaining at home for a short time, 
he went to the State of Texas, where he remained until spricg, traveling over 
the country and visiting many localities in the Lone Star State. From thence 
he visited New Orleans again, a short time, and returned up the river to Butler 
county, Iowa, where he remained during the summer of 1857. In September, 
1857, he came to this county, locating at Blue Earth City. Here lie engaged for 
a time in surveying and school-teaching, and other occupations, until his ap- 
pointment as county auditor, in January, 1859, as above stated. While yet fill- 
ing the office of auditor, Mr. Bonwell was elected register of deeds of the 
county, in the fall of 1864. This office he held but one term, not desiring a re- 
election. He was married, in 1868, to Miss E,xcene Gano. They have had four 
children. About the year 1872, he removed to his farm in Jo Daviess township 
where he remained some eight years, engaged in faraiing, after which he re- 
turned again to Blue Earth City, where he erected a comfortable home, and 
now resides. Mr. Bonwell has, from time to lime, held various town and school 
offices, and the office of justice of the peace, several terms, at Blue Earth City, 
and was chairman of the board of county commissioners, of this county, in 1879 
the board of which he had been, for many years, clerk. Mr. Bonwell has been 
a republican in politics since the organization of that party, until late years, 
during which he has acted with the prohibitionists. 



648 HISTORY OF 

Franklin W. Cady. of Verona township, elected auditor Nov. 
8th, 1804, succeeded Mr. Bonvvell. Mr. Cady was re elected at the 
general election, Nov. 6th, 1HG6, for a second term, which he served. 

Mr. Ciuly was born in Lake cuunty.Ohio, January I5lh, 1826. II« attt-nded the 
district scliools during' the winter terms, until he was elKlileen years old, and 
then was a student of Grand Kiver Institute, in Ashtahular county, O., for two 
years. He learned the art of penmanship, under the tuition of P. R. Spencer, 
and suhseciuently tau^jht writing schools and district schools, during four win- 
ters. He removed to Columbia county, Wisconsin, where he boughta farm and 
commenced farming. 

He was united in marriage to Miss Ellen Waterhouse, July 20th, 1851. They 
have three children. 

In June, 1S61, he came to this county and settled on a farm in the town of 
Verona. When lie assumed the duties of auditor he removed to Blue Earth 
City, but on retiring from oltice he returned to his farm. Having purchased a 
valuable tract of land near Hlu(,> Earth City, he removed upon it and resided 
there for some years, but having sold this farm, he removed again to the old 
homestead, in Verona, where he still resides. Mr. Cady has also held various 
town otllces from time to time, in Verona. He has been a republican ever since 
the organization of the party. He is largely engaged In farming and stock 
raising. 

William W. "White, of Walnut Lake township, next assumed 
the duties and responsibilities of the office, being elected auditor at 
the election held in November, 1868. 

Mr. White was re-elected in the years, 1870, 1872, 1874, 1876, 
1878, 1880, 1882 and 1884, during all of which successive terms he 
has served the countj- in this office. 

Mr. White was born in Oneida county, state of New York, on the twenty- 
fourth day of IJeeember, 18J8. His grandparents were Vermonters, and emi- 
grated to New York State, where William's father, Asel White, was born. He 
was a farmer. 

William was educated, mainly, in the common or public schools of his 
neighborhood, but he also attended at Saquoit Academy, in his native county, 
for some time. He was brought up a farmer. 

In 1857 he was married to Miss Frances F. Lapham. They have had two 
children. 

In 1858, ]Mr. White removed to Dodge county, Wisconsin, where he bought 
a farm. Here he remained some three years, when he sold out and emigrated 
to this State, in April, ISGl, locating in Mower county, where he rented a farm. 
In the fall of the same year he came to this county and settled in Walnut Lake 
township, where he took up a quarter section of land under the pre-emption 
laws, but sub-equently changed to a homestead entry. He "proved up" on this 
tract, and still owns it. 

Mr. White, while a resident of Wisconsin, was town clerk of Beaver Dam 
township, one term, and was also a justice of the peace one term, while a resi- 
dent of Walnut Lake tf)wnship. In the fall of 1868 he was elected county aud- 
itor, as we hive seen above, and removed to Blue Earth City in the spring of 
1869, to assume the duties of the office, and here he has resided during his term 
of otllce. He was a memberof the village council of Blue Earth City, one term. 
Mr. White has always been a republican in politics, and he and Mrs. White are 
members of the regular Baptist church. After retiring from office, Mr. White 
returned to his farm in Walnut L:ik«Uownship, where he remained some years, 
and then removed to Owatonna, Minn. 




W. \V. WHITE. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 649 

SECTION EIGHT. 

THE COUNTY TREASURY AND THE TREASURERS. 

Briefly stated, the duties of the county treasurer, as defined by 
law, are to receive and safely keep all public moneys, directed by 
law to be paid to him, and to pay out the same, only upon the order 
of the proper authority. He is required to keep fair and accurate 
boolf s of account, showing the amount, the time when, by whom and 
on what account moneys are received by him, and the amount, time 
and manner of all disbursements. His accounts must be so kept, 
that they will show what lias been received and paid on each separ- 
ate and distinct fund, or appropriation. The treasurer is not only 
the depository of the public funds, but is also now the collector of 
all the taxes. Formerly the sheriff was the tax collector. 

The treasurer is required to make a full and complete settle- 
ment with the county auditor, every four months, in which he ex- 
hibits the balance and condition of each fund in his hands. 

His accounts and funds are also subject to examination at any 
time, without notice, by the State examiner and by the board of au- 
dit, consisting of the clerk of the district court, the chairman of the 
' board of commissions, and the county auditor. The treasurer's term 
of office is two years, formerly commencing and ending in March, 
but now in January. He is required, before entering upon his du- 
ties, to take the usual official oath, and give an approved bond for 
the faithful performance of his duties, in such sum as the board of 
county commissioners may direct. The treasurer is paid by a cer- 
tain percentage on all funds coming into his hands, which he is al- 
lowed to retain. 

THE FIRST TREASURER. 

The first treasurer of this county was Louis P. Grout, of Blue 
Earth City, appointed by the county board April 6th, 1857. He 
immediately filed his official bond, and entered upon the duties of 
his office, which were not onex'ous, as it appears that he never re- 
ceived or paid out any public funds, as treasurer, except one dollar, 
which he paid some one for writing his bond, and that he paid in 
trade. In the absence of anything further to say of the first treas- 
urer, it may be recorded here, as an item of historical interest, 
that Mr. Grout, in partnership with his brother, Isaac E. Grout, an 
individual of some note in the early days of the county, kept a small 
store in Blue Earth City, for some years, in which the principal 
articles of merchandise were calico, salaratus, soap, tobacco, cod- 
fish and whisky. 

This store was not the first, but the second mercantile estab- 
lishment at Blue Earth City, and was kept in a one story log cabin, 



650 HISTORY OF 

14x20 feet, which stood nearly opposite the Constan's hotel. The 
building was roofed with "shakes, "and was chinked and rauddcd up 
in the usual manner, and had a puncheon floor, two doors and three 
half windows. It was divided into two rooms, the rear room being 
occupied by the families of the proprietors, as a dwelling, and the 
front room was devoted entirely to commercial purposes. Here, in 
the dignity of his office, stood the treasurer of the county, engaged 
in mercantile pursuits. And here, too, in this hovel, it may be re- 
marked, was many a "wassail," held of early settlers, when "joy 
was unconfined." The old building has long since disappeared, and 
the first treasurer has passed to his final account. 

Mr. Albin Johnson, of Blue Earth City, succeeded Mr. Grout, 
being elected to the office October 13th, 1857. He qualified Novem- 
ber 2d. following, and assumed the duties of his office. During the 
following year the first tax was levied and collected, and the first 
public funds came to the hands of the treasurer. At that time the 
treasurer did not collect the taxes, the sheriff being ex-offwio tax 
collector. The treasurer, however, several years later, became by 
law the collector of all taxes. At the general election, held October 
11th, 1859, Mr. Johnson was re-elected for a second term, which he 
served. 

Albin Johnson was born in Carroll county, state of New Hampshire, on the 
sixteenth day of February, 1817. His urandfnther and father were amonp the 
old residents of Massachusetts, originally, but removed to New Hampshire. 
His grandfather was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and was at Bunker 
Hill and other battles of that eventful period. His father was a farmer and 
blacksmith. Albin received his education in the common schools apd at an 
academy, located at Wakefield, New Hampshire. He designed entering the 
medical profession, but (;ave it up. In his youth he taught school during the 
winters for some sixteen years. His occupation during the remainder of the 
year, was principally farming. He held a number of town offices in his native 
town. Mr. Johnson was married July ISth, 1839, to Miss Nancy M. lUirleigh, 
and they have had five children, one of whom is now dead. He came directly 
from his eastern home to this county, in January, 1857, and has resided here ever 
since. He first settled on a farm, whore he has since erected good buildings 
and made other extensive improvements. When elected county treasurer he re- 
moved to Blue Earth City, but returned to his farm again afterwards. In 1880 
he removed again to Blue Earth City and erected a large dwelling and other 
buildings, as a home, and continued to reside at that place, but still having 
charge, to a considerable extent, of his large farm, until bis death. Mr. Johnson 
and family are members of the Presbyterian church. He was a republican in 
politics from the organization of the party. Mr. Johnson was twice county 
commissioner, and frequently held the office of town supervisor. He died at 
Blue Earth City, August 2d, 1887. 

William Dustin, of Winnebago City, elected October 8th. 1861, 
was the next county treasurer. Heretofore the accounts of the 
treasurer (not very extensive indeed) were kept in small account 
books, and memorandums, furnished by the treasurer, but 
the county having provided a full set of proper books for the office. 













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\VM. DUSTIN. 



FAUIBAVLT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 651 

Mr. Dustin proceeded to open and keep the public accounts, in a 
more conveninent manner. Mr. Dustin was re-elected for a second 
term, at the general election November 3d, 1863, and held the office 
until the expiration of the term. 

WILLIAM DUSTIN. 

William Dustin was a native of Orange Cfounty, state of Vermont, where 
he was born in 182G. 

His father, John K. Dustin, was a farmer by occupation, and William was 
kept on the farm until he was twenty years of age. 

He received his early education in the common schools of the country. 
When about twenty years old (1847) he went to reside in Boston, Mass., where 
he received a practical, commercial education, which was the preparation for 
what proved to be his life work. 

In 1854 he was married to Miss Abby Gay, of Boston. They have four chil- 
dren now living. 

In 1857 he removed with his family to La Crosse county, Wisconsin, where 
he remained one year, and then, in the spring of 1858, came to this county, and 
settled near Winnebago City, and engaged in farming. 

Soon after his election to the office of county treasurer, Mr. Dustin and his 
family removed to Blue Earth City. 

Here, in connection with the duties of treasurer, Mr. Dustin engaged in the 
mercantile business for many years. For a time he was deputy postmaster, 
and was afterwards postmaster. He held the office of chairman of the board of 
town supervisors for many consecutive years, and was a member of the village 
council and of the board of education at Blue Earth City. In the spring of 1882 
he removed to Holt County, Nebraska, and engaged in merchandising. Mr. 
Dustin was a republican in political sentiment. 

Rial B. Johnson, of Winnebago City, elected November 7th, 
1865, succeeded Mr. Dustin, and at the proper time assumed the 
duties of the office. Mr. Johnson was re-elected to the office in the 
years 1867, 1869, 1871, 1873 and 1875, holding the office for twelve 
consecutive years. 

AN INCIDENT. 

On the night of March 1st, 1869, an attempt was made to rob 
the county treasury. The treasurer's office was entered, and 
the safe blown open. A small, iron till in the safe, which was 
supposed to contain the money, was taken out and carried to a 
wood-pile a square distant, where an axe was found, with which 
the till was smashed, when lo! but three cents were found to re- 
ward the rascal, or rascals, for their pains. 

The county auditor was the first in the morning to learn of the 
attempted robbery, and supposed that a large sum had been 
taken, and, while examining the safe, Mr. Johnson, the treasurer, 
came in. After viewing the safe a few moments to see what had 
been done, he quietly remarked, that "the burglars didn't seem to 
have known that that was not the safe in which the funds had been 
deposited, and that it required the auditor's warrant and not an ap- 



652 HisronY OF 

plication of gunpowder to draw the funds." The treasurer had the 
public funds, to a cent, entirely secure, and the county lost nothing. 
No attempt was made to discover the burglars, nor has anj'thing 
transpired to this day to indicate by whom the burglary was at- 
tempted. The commissioners, meeting soon after this event, passed 
a resolution of thanks to Mr. Johnson for his care of tlie public 
funds. 

Mr. Johnson is a native of New Hampshire. He was born October 22d, 1827, 
in Grafton, Grafton county, of that state. When ten years of age, he reiuoved 
witli his parents to Vermont. His educational advantages were such as were 
fiirnislied, in that day, liy the coniinon sdiools of New England. He early 
learned a trade, which he afterwards found to Ije of great advantage in life. In 
1856, he came west, and settled in Berlin, Wisconsin, where he carried on the 
shoe business, until his next removal. Here he was married, in 1857, to Miss 
Ellen Davlin. They have had two children, a son and a daughter. In the 
spring of 1858, he came to the township of Verona, in this county, and engaged 
in farming, and, in 1862, he removed to Winnebago City, this county, where he 
engaged again in the shoe trade, and also merchandising, until his election to 
the ortice of county treasurer, in 1805. In the spring of 1866, he became a resi- 
dent of Blue Earth City, and has continued to reside ever since at that place. 
After retiring from the oflice of treasurer, he was, in 1878, elected state senator 
for the sixth district, for four years, which he served. He was our first senator 
under the biennial system. Mr. Johnson has held various local offices, from 
time to time, as president of the village council of Blue Earth City, etc. Since 
leaving official life, Mr. Johnson has been largely engaged in farming opera- 
tions, and has, for many years, dealt largely in real estate. He was the origin- 
ator of the abstracts of title, in this county, a work on which he spent a large 
aninunt of labor, time, and money, and subsequently sold. The same abstracts 
now belong to the county. Mr. Johnson has been a republican in politics since 
the days of Fremont. He became a Mason in 1867, and has always taken much 
interest in the fraternity, and was, for two terms. Worshipful Master of Blue 
Earth City Lodge, No. 57. He is also a member of Mount Horeb Chapter, No. 
21, Royal Arch Masons. 

Otto Kaupp, of Blue Earth City, is the next in order of the 
ti-easurers. He was elected in 1877 and assumed the duties of the 
office in March following, and served one term. 

It was in Wirtemburg, Germany, on the first day of December, 1842, that 
Mr. Kaupp was born. His father was a physician. He died in 1855. The sub- 
ject of our sketch received his education in the public schools of the city. In 
1857 he came with his sister to this State and located at Mankato. Here he 
engaged in farming until 1860, when he commenced learning the tinner's trade 
and worked at the business seven years in Mankato. In the spring of 1867, he 
came to this county and located at Blue Earth City, where he engaged in the 
hardware business, in which he has continued ever since. He was married to 
Miss Mary J. McLaughlin, October 29lh, 1868. They have five children. He 
was town treasurer in 1877. town clerk from 1880 to 1886. President of the vil- 
age council of Blue Earth City in 1882, and village treasurer in 1885 and 1886. 
Mr. Kaupp is a member of the Roman Catholic church and a democrat in poli- 
tics. He was appointed postmaster at Blue Earth City in the fall of 1887. Mr. 
Kaupp was also president of the city council of Blue Earth City, a number of 
years in succession. 




R. B. JOHNSON. 




OTTO KAUPP. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 653 

Anthony Anderson; of Delavan, succeeded Mr. Kaupp. He was 
elected treasurer in the fall of 1879, and was re-elected in the years 

1881, 1883, 1886 and 1888. 

Mr. Anderson was born in Washington county, New Yorlr, August 18th, 
1833. His father was a farmer, and Anthony remained at home most of the time 
assisting his father on the farm, until he was twenty-one years of age. His 
early education was acquired in the common schools, except one year, during 
which he attended Castleton Seminary, Vermont. When he left home, he went 
into the mercantile business at Putnam Landing, Washington county. New 
York, and remained at that place until he came west. He wasmarried in July, 
1865, to Miss Mary E. Wright. They have had two children. In August, 1866, 
Mr. Anderson came to Blue Earth City and engaged in merchandising. In 1871 
he removed to Delavan, in this county, and took charge of Mr. Coleman's lum- 
ber yards, where he remained until his election to the office of county treasurer, 
when he returned to Blue Earth City, and has since resided at that place. Mr. 
Anderson has held various local offices, as town supervisor in New York, justice 
of the peace of Delavan township, and member of the village council of Blue 
Earth City, and of the school board for many years. He is a republican in pol- 
itics, and he and his family are members of the Presbyterian church. Latterly, 
for a number of years, he has had charge of a lumber yard at Blue Earth City 
and has, also, been largely interested in the Farmers and Merchants Bank, at 
that place. 

SECTION NINE. 

THE OFFICE OF REGISTER OF DEEDS AND THE REGISTERS. 

The duties of the register of deeds as defined by law are, briefly 
— That he shall keep suitable books in which he shall record at 
large and in full, word for word, any and all instruments (duly exe- 
cuted), in any way affecting the titles to real estate, that may be 
left with him for record. Keeping separate books of deeds, mort- 
gages and other instruments, and shall also keep in separate books, 
an alphabetical index, in which he shall enter under the proiDer let- 
ter of the alphabet, the name of each grantor and grantee in any 
deed, mortgage or other instrument, left with him for record. He 
also furnishes abstracts of title when requested. 

The term of office of the register of deeds, is two years. He is 
required to take an official oath and give bond for the faithful per- 
formance of his duties. He is authorized to appoint deputies, for 
whose acts he is responsible. 

The register is paid for his services by fees, paid by the person 
desiring recording done. Prom the fact that the register of deeds 
is the only public official custodian of the records and evidences of 
all the land titles and the encumbrances thereon, that exist by 
law in the county, the importance of this office and the extent of the 
trust reposed in the register of deeds arevery evident, and comment 
is unnecessary. 

Prior to January 3d, 1859, the register of deeds was in this 
county, exofficio clerk of the board of county commissioners, and 



6r)4 • IIISTOIIY OF 

in that capacity performed the duties of county auditor, or in other 
words, the register of deeds was both register and auditor. 

The first register of deeds of this county was Samuel V. Hibler. 
He was appointed by Gov. W. A. Gorman, on the organization of 
the county, his commission bearing date February LTHh, lH5t5. He 
appointed Wm. Dow and J. B. Wakefield, deputies. Mr. Wakefield, 
however, performed, principally, the duties of the ofifice, not at 
that time very onerous. Mr. Hibler held the office until the general 
election held in October, 185G. 

Mr. Hibler was a Pennsylvanian. K<i came to Minnesota and located at 
Shakopee, Scott county, in tliis state, where it appears he intended to open a 
book and stationery store Here he became ac(iuainted with Messrs. WakeUeld 
and Constans, and concluded to join thorn in the projector founding Blue 
Earth City, and came to this county in February, 1856, and became one of the 
original town site proprietors. 

Mr. Hibler took a claim adjoining the town site and remained here during 
a part of the summer, when he returned to Shakopee to arrange his business 
alVairs there. While absent his claim was jumped. On returning, there oc- 
curred the unhappy affair of the killing of Brooks, more fully detailed in the 
history of the year 1856. After this lie went back to Shakopee, and from thence 
returned to Pennsylvania, and .sold out his interests in this county. During 
the war of the rebellion, he enlisted in the military service of the United States 
and became the captain of a cavalry company. 

At the general election held October 14th. 1856. James B. Wake- 
field, of Blue Earth City, was elected register of deeds, and immed- 
iately entered upon the discharge of the duties of this office. He 
continued to perform the duties of register of deeds and clerk of the 
county board until the twenty-second of April, 1857, when he ap- 
pointed J. A. Kiester. of Blue Earth City, deputy register, who 
thereafter transacted the business of the office as deputy until the 
twenty-sixth day of October. 1857, when the office becoming vacant 
by the resignation of Mr. Wakefield, Mr. Kiester was appointed 
register by the county board. He held the office by this appoint- 
ment until the general election in October, 1858, when he was 
elected for a full term. 

By the act of August 13th, 1858. the county board were author- 
ized to appoint a clerk if they choose, other than the register of 
deeds, and on January 3d, lS59, they appointed Arthur Bonwell, 
clerk, at Mr. Kiester's request, and he then assumed the duties of 
auditor and clerk of the county board, and those duties passed from 
the office of register of deeds. 

In the year 1860 the county procured a full set of record books 
and indexes, and although the books containing the records up to 
this time, being volumes A. B. C. D. E. F. G., were most of them 
small, cheap books, provided by the registers, the county commis- 
sioners unwisely refused to have them transcribed into new books. 
Better books should have been used from the beginning, but the 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 655 

county was poor and the registers poorer. The old indexes wefe, 
however, transcribed into the new books, and made full and com- 
plete, and in conformity to the law. 

At the general election, held November 6th, 1860, Mr. Kiester 
was re-elected for a second term, and at the election in November, 
1862, for a third term, and lield the office until the expiration of the 
term, but was not a candidate for re-election. 

Arthur Bonwell, of Blue Earth City, was our next register of 
deeds, having been elected in November, 1864. He held the office 
one term, declining a re-election. Biographical sketches of the pre- 
ceding registers will be found elsewhere in this work. 

On the twenty-sixth day of March, 1865, the building, a small 
frame, in which the offices of register and auditor were kept, took 
fire accidently and was entirely consumed, but happily, all the books 
and most of the valuable papers of both offices were saved, though 
some of the records were scorched. A more full account of the 
event is given in the history of 1865. 

Francis Lent, of Prescott, elected November 6th, 1866, suc- 
ceeded Mr. Bonwell. He was reelected in the years 1868 and 1870, 
holding the office six years. Mr. Lent appointed Daniel F. Good- 
rich his advisor, assistant and deputy. 

Mr. Leot was bora in .Westchester county, New York, October 1st, 1832. 
His parents removed from that county in 1815, to Osweg'O county, In that State, 
and in 18.53, to Jefferson county, Wisconsin. His father was a carpenter and 
joiner by trade, but followed farming during his latter years. Francis got his 
education in the district schools, and has made farming his occupation through 
life. 

He was married to Miss Phebe E. Lent, in Jefferson county, Wisconsin, 
August 26th, 18.54, and they have one child. Mr. Lent came to Minnesota in 
1861, and first settled in Olmstead county, but left there coming to this county 
in 1862, and located on a farm in Prescott. When elected to the office of regis- 
ter of deeds, he removed to Blue Earth City, and remained there until he re- 
tired from the office, when he returned to his farm, where he has since resided. 

Mr. Lent has always been a republican in political sentiment. He has been 
town clerk and town supervisor a numbar of times, and justice of the peace of 
his town. 

HON. DANIEL F. GOODRICH. 

Mr. Goodrich was born Novembjr 13th, 1836, in the county of Somersett, 
Maine. 

His father was a farmer and lumberman. Daniel's education was obtained 
In the common schools and at Waterville academy and Waterville college, now 
Colby university, where he graduated in 1859. After his graduation he was en- 
gaged in teaching and in the study of the law. He read law under the direc- 
tion of Hon. R. Poster, of Waterville, Maine. Id July, 1862, he enlisted in the 
military service of the United States, and was ordered south. He went into the 
service as a private and was promoted, rapidly, to sergeant, sergeant major, 
second lieutenant and first lieutenant, and for awhile, commanded the com- 
pany. He was in the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna. 
Cold Harbor, Petersburgh, Winchester, Fisher's Hill, Cedar Creek and Peters- 



656 THSTORY OF 

bur^'h a^'aln, anrt Sailor's crook. Ho was in twonty-two battles, bosldos skir- 
niishos. IIo served until the olose of the war. lie returned home in 1865, and 
was admitted to the bar in March, 1866, at Aut^usta, Maine, and went into prac- 
tice with Mr. Foster, for a .short time. In 1867, he came to Minnesota and 
located in Rice county, for some months engaKod in school teaching. Ho came 
to this county and located at niuo Earth City, In 1868, where he engaged in the 
practice of tlie law, and where he resided at the time of his death. 

Mr. Goodrich held various minor olMces, at lilue Earth City, was justice of 
the peace there for four terms, and deputy register, as above stated. He never 
married. 

Mr. Goodrich was elected state senator, for this district, in 1877, and at- 
tended the session of 1878. He was again elected to the senate in 1882, for four 
years, and attended the sessions or 1883 and 1885, and he was again re-elected in 
1886 for four years, and attended the sessions of 1^87 and 188!». He was chair- 
man (if the Judiciary committee, during the session, 188J). 

Mr. Goodrich died at Blue Earth City, in September, 1889. 
Frederick P. Brown, of Blue Earth City, elected in November, 
1872, succeeded Mr. Lent. Mr. Brown was aj^ain elected in tlie years 
1874, 1876, 1878, 1880. 1882 and 1884. holding the office longer than 
any prior incumbent. 

Mr. Brown was born in Kobbervig, Norway, August 12th, 1838. His 
father was a sea-faring man and captain of a merchant vessel for a number of 
years, and he was also engaged for some years in the mercantile business at 
Ivobbervig. He is a lineal descendant of Bishop J. N. Brown, who was a man 
of learning and distinction in Norway. 

Frederick received his education mainly in private schools and from private 
tutors. When quite young ho went to sea and became a sailor. He sailed seven 
years on salt water and two on the American lakes. During his .sea-faring life 
he visited many countries. Ho emigrated to America in 1854 and located ia 
Dane county, Wisconsin, where he engaged in farming and clerking oc- 
casionally. 

While a resident here, he was, during one session of the state legislature, 
postmaster of the senate. 

At the breaking out of the war of the rebellion, he enlisted at Madison, 
Wisconsin, in the Third Wisconsin, but falling ill, he wassoon afterdischarged. 

In December, 1801, he came to Minnesota and located at Rochester, where 
he was employed as a clerk in the large dry goods house of A. Nelson. He was 
married in the spring of 1863 to Miss Lena Larson. They have had eight chil- 
dren, two of whom are dead. 

Mr. Brown remained at Rochester until 1866, when he came to this county, 
locating at Blur Earth City, where ho went into the mercantile business in 
company with Colburn Nelson, in which business he continued some years. 

Mr. Brown and his wife are members of the old Norwegian Lutheran 
Church, and be has always boon a ropublic.in in politics. 

Mr. Brown was elected secretary of state of the State of Minnesota in 1890, 
and was re-elected in 1892. Since retiring from public office, Mr. Brown has been 
largely engaged in farming operations in this county. 




F. P. BKOWN. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 657 

SECTION TEN. 

THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OP SCHOOLS. 

The public school system of Minnesota is, in many respects, an 
honor to the intelligence of the people of the State, and a blessing, 
the value of which can never be fully estimated. 

The public school fund, provided by law, and well secured for 
the support of free public schools is more liberal, jierhaps, than 
that of any other state in the Union, and should ever be guarded 
with jealous care. And there has, as yet, been but one attempt 
made, by public plunderers, to get the fund into shape, by legisla- 
tion, so that it might be reached by them. But the project was de- 
feated by the honesty and ability of the state auditor. 

Prior to the adoption of the county superintendent system, the 
schools were first without any supervision, except that of the trus- 
tees. Then followed the town superintendent system, by which a 
superintendent for each township, or township district, had the 
supervision of the schools. After this came the district examiner 
system, in which an examiner was appointed, by the county board, 
for each county commissioner district in the county. This system 
detained at the time of the adoption of the county superintendent 
system. The examiners who were appointed under that system, in 
the several districts, are named in the history of the several years. 

The earliest printed reports, relating to schools in this county, 
other than mere scant statistics, were made in 1861, by three of the 
town superintendents. They are preserved here as a matter of cu- 
riosity, and read as follows: 

BRUSH CREEK DISTRICT. 

"L. J. Whitney, superintendent, reports one teacher licensed, one school; 
no school house yet; no school furniture. School not classifled 'to suit my no- 
tions.' Not opened with reading nor prayer. 'Less jealousness and to be more 
united' would greatly improve. People too little interested." 

DOBSON AND CAMPBELL DISTRICT. 

"Wm. Hill, superintendent, reports two teachers licensed; two (2) schools; 
one log school house, one hired; neither have out-houses; one is graded; de- 
ficient in everything else; schools properly classifled, and opened by reading the 
scriptures. We want two new school houses and a few more scholars. People 
generally interested, though there are some exceptions." 

GUTHRIE DISTRICT. 

"John McKinney, superintendent, reports two teachers licensed; two 
schools held in log dwelling houses, on the prairies— owners in them, too. 
Schools properly classifled; not opened with reading or prayer. Thing needed, 
'spur the trustees.' People Interested 'considerably.' " 



658 J/JS'Jum (IF 

THE SUPERINTENDENT. 

The principle duties of the suporintendent, briefly stated, are to 
examine aud license teachers, visit and inspect the schools of his coun- 
ty at least once in each term, give advice to teachers, organize and con- 
duct teachers' institutes, encourage teachers' associations, introduce 
the best modes of instruction, receive the reports of district clerks, 
and transmit an abstract of the same to the state superintendent 
and report annually the condition and prospects of the schools 
under his care, besides many other minor duties which cannot be 
enumerated here. The term of office was formerly one year, but 
it was subsequently made two years. 

By the law establishing the county superintendent system of 
school supervision, the board of county commissioner of the sev- 
eral counties were authorized to adopt the system and appoint a 
superintendent when deemed advisable. 

The system was adopted in this county, January 2d, 1866, and 
A. H. Pelsey was appointed superintendent for the year 1866, at 
an annual salary of !?175. On the sixth of September, 1866, he was 
appointed for the year 1867, at a salary of §200. On Septem- 
ber 4th, 1867, he was ap))ointed for the year 1868, and in January 
following, the salary for 1868 was raised to ?300. Mr. Pelsey 
resigned the office, October 1st, 1868. 

Mr. Pelsey came to this State from Wisconsin, and located at 
Blue Earth City, about the year 1865, where he and his wife were 
for a long lime engaged in the public schools. He subsequently 
studied medicine and located at Minnesota Lake, where he engaged 
in practice, and where lie died. 

While a resident of Blue Earth City, he took quite an interest 
in public educational affairs, aud also somewiiat in politics. 

On the the resignation of Mr. Pelsey, Sheridan J. Abbott, of 
Winnebago City, was appointed superintendent to complete the re- 
mainder of Mr. Pelsey "s term, and also for the year 1869, which he 
served. 

SHERIDAN J. ABBOTT. 

Mr. Abbott, who has long been a prominent resident of the county, is a na- 
tive of Ohio. He was born in Lr)rrain county in that state, March 25lh, 1839. 
He removed with his people to Marquette county, state of Wisconsin, in 1849. 
His early education was obtained in the district schools of his native stale and 
in Wisconsin, and at college in Kipon, in the latter state, which he attended 
for some time, but did not graduate. 

He commenced reading law when about sixteen years old, with lluu. II. G. 
Webb, at Wautoma, Wisconsin, reading during the summers, and teaching 
school in winters. He taught many terras. He wa'* admitted to the bar, at 
Berlin, Wisconsin, when about twenty years old. and then engaged in the prac- 
tice of law. 

He was married, in 1860, to Miss Julia H. Potter, of Marquette county, 
Wisconsin. They have three children. Mr. Abbott was at one lime county 





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S. J. ABBOTT. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 659 

attorney of Marquette county, Wisconsin, and resigned the office just before 
coming to Minnesota. He came to this county in 1867, and located at Winne- 
bago City, where he engaged in the practice until 188f), when he removed to 
Delavan, in this county, where he continued his business. 

With a very brief exception. Mr. Abbott has been a republican from his 
youth. His family attend the Methodist Episcopal church. 

He was elected a member of the State legislature in 1892, and attended the 
session of 1893. 

Oq September 9th, 1869, the county board appointed the Rev. 
J. D. Todd, of Winnebago City for a part of the year, 1870, but he 
declined the office, and on the sixteenth day of the same month the 
board appointed Richard W. Richards, of Minnesota Lake, for three 
months, from January 1st, 1870, to April 1st following, at an annual 
salary of |300. 

On the twenty-fourth day of March, 1870, Mr. Richards was ap- 
pointed for two years, from April 1st, 1870, and the salary was 
raised to $400 per annum. On January 2d, 1872, he was again ap- 
pointed for two years, from April 1st, 1872, and the salary was 
raised to $600 per annum, and on January 7th, 1873, the salary was 
increased to $800 per annum. By act of Marcli 7th, 1873, the com- 
missioners were required to fix the salary "at not less than at the 
rate often (10) dollai's for each organized district in the county, not 
exceeding one hundred districts, but if the number of districts ex- 
ceeded one hundred, the salary should not be less than $1,000, nor 
more than $1,250 per annum." This act took eifect as to the salary 
of the superintendent of the county, June 10th, 1873. On January 
6th, 1874, Mr. Richards was again appointed for two years, from 
April 1st, 1874. 

The time for making the new appointment cam« on at the Jan- 
uary session of the county board, in 1876. There were three appli- 
cants for the appointment, and the commissioners, not being able 
to agree, the matter was deferred to the March session. 

In the meantime an act was passed by the legislature making 
the office elective at the next general election in this and several 
other counties, and provided that the present incumbents should 
continue to hold their offices until the first day of January, 1877. 
Under this provision Mr. Richards held over. 

By act approved March 1st, 1876, it was enacted: That any 
woman, of the age of 21 years and upwards, belonging to either of 
the classes mentioned in section 1 of article 7 of the constitution of 
the State of Minnesota, who shall have resided in the United States 
one year, and in this State for four months next preceding any elec- 
-tion held for the purpose of choosing any officer of schools, or any 
school district meeting called to consider any measure relating to 
schools, shall be entitled to vote at such election or meeting, in the 
school district of which she shall at the time have been for ten days 



660 HISTORY OF 

a resident, and any woman so entitled to vote shall be eligible to 
hold any office pertaining solely to the management of public 
schools. It having been determined that women, under the above 
act could not vote for superintendent, an additional act was passed in 
March, 1885, by which women belonging to the above mentioned 
classes were permitted to vote for county superintendent, and they 
are eligible to hold the office of superintendent. 

Mr. Richards was elected superintendent in the years 1876, 1878, 
and after an interval of one term, was again elected to the office in 
the years 1882 and 1884. 

Mr. Richards was Ixirn in Oneifia county, New York, July 14lh, 18:J8. His 
laihiT, who was a carijonter \<y trade, was born in Wales, and came to America 
about the year 183.-J. He died when Richard was about four years old. Soon 
after his father's death, Richard went to live with a friend witli whom he made 
his home for a number of years, and attended the common schools until he was 
about twelve years old, when he was engaged as a clerk in a grocery store, in 
ntica, New York, where he remained about two years, and after this he was 
employed as a copying clerk for some three years in the law ollice of Hon. 
Roscoe Conkling, in Utica. His health failing he went into the country to re- 
cruit, and afterwards entered Fairfield Seminary as a student. He taught his 
first term of school in Fulton county, New York, in the winter of 18.54-5. The 
next three years were spent in school, during the spring and autumn, and teach- 
ing a four months' term of school in winter. During this lime his preparation 
for college was completed, and in 1858 he entered Union college, Schenectady, 
New York. He became principal of the Johnstown, New York, schools, a po- 
sition which he resigned in 18G1, to accept a more lucrative position, as teacher 
in the stale of Maryland, but the rebellion breaking outr about this time, his 
plans were disarranged. He then enlisted in the military service, becoming a 
member of the 3Uh regiment, New York state militia, in answer to the first 
call for troops. At Albany he was exposed for many hours to a cold rain, and in 
consequence was attacked with lung fever, and was not mustered into the ser- 
vice of the United States, as his regiment was mustered out at the e.xpiratioQ 
of term of service. In the fall of 1661 he emigrated to Wisconsin, where he 
engaged in teaching. In the summer of 1862 he was appointed superintendent 
of schools of the west half of Dodge county, Wisconsin. 

In 1863 he was appointed a clerk in the ollice of the secretary of state, Wis- 
consin, where he remained some time, then in 1864 he entered the offlce of the 
adjutant general, Wisconsin, as a clerk, where he remained until the close of 
th ' war. He was also, during the session of the legislature of Wisconsin, in 
1864, enrolling clerk of the assembly. 

In 1865, he removed to St. Louis, Mo., where the only work he could find 
for some time was that of street car conductor, in which he was employed 
about .seven months, when he secured the position of shipping cierk in a glass 
manufacturing company. After a few months' >ervice in this position, he was 
chosen bookkeeper and paymaster of the concern. Here he remained until the 
factory was burned, in December, 1860. In January, 1867, he came to this 
county and purchased a farm in Minnesota Lake township, and came there to 
reside in the following April. 

On the eleventh of February, 1867, he was married to Miss Winifred Morris, 
of Painfleld, N. Y. They had three children, two of whom are dead. His wife 
died in July, 1873. 




K. W . K'U'llAK'D- 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 661 

In the spring of 1872 Mr. Richards removed to Blue Earth City where he 
has since resided. He was married in April, 1879, to Mrs. Mary A. Looniis, of 
this county 

Mr. Richards' official history as superintendent, is detailed above. He has 
held various other official positions, as secretary of the Agricultural society 
many terms, and as an officer of the Sunday school association, and has always 
been a worker in the tempennce cause, an;! was Deputy G. W. C. Templar in 
this State for 1875 and 1876, and organized many lodges of that order in 
the state. 

He has been a member of the Presbyterian church since 1856, and always a 
stalwart republican in politics. During late years Mr. Richards has been chief 
clerk in the county auditor's office, and has been a member of the board of ed- 
ucation at Blue Earth City, of which he is at this time president. 

It is gratifying to the writer to record the fact here that from 
the early settlement of the county, to the present time, the people 
of all parts of the county have taken a large interest in the subject 
of education, and that they have made rapid progress in the increase 
of the number and standing of the schools, and the building of school 
houses, as is attested by the history of the several years of the 
county. Our schools take rank with the common schools of other 
parts of the State, and our graded schools compare favorably with 
schools of like grade anywhere in the northwest. No people can 
interest themselves in a better cause than that of the proper educa- 
tion of the young. 

THE COUNTRY SCHOOL HOUSE. 

THE DISTRICT SCHOOL. 

The country school house! the little red school house! the little 
white school house! 

"Within, the master's desk is seen, 

Deep scared by raps official; 
The warping floor, the battered seats. 

The jack-knife's carved initial; 
The charcoal frescos on its wall; 

Its door's worn sill, betraying 
The feet that, creeping slow to school, 

Went storming out to playingi" — Whiitier. 

Many scores of country school houses have been built in the 
twenty townships of this county. In some respects the country 
school houses are the most important structures in the county. How 
could we get along without them"? Their uses are manifold. Let us 
enumerate some of them. In some one of them the township cau- 
cuses meet, to elect delegates to the higher political bodies. Here 
the people assemble to hear political speeches and the discussion of 
the great party issues of the times. Here the district school meet- 
ings are held. Here, in some predesignated one, the electors of the 
town assemble, each year, to elect their town officers and decide im- 



662 IIISTOIiY OF 

portant township questions, and often stormy contests occur, and 
high words of rival candidates are heard. It is in the school houses 
that the people of the country meet to hear lectures and organize 
their local societies. Here too, are the great spelling contests, the 
singing schools, and here the local debating societies meet to discuss 
and settle great social and moral questions, and declaim selections 
from the speeches of Adams, Patrick Henry, Webster, Clay, Cor- 
win, and other eminent orators, of bygone days. And it is not in 
the fine churches, but in the country school houses, that the great 
majority of the people of the county assemble for stated public re- 
ligious services, and it is here many of the great religious revivals 
occur, and many church societies are organized from time to time. 

Yet none of these are the uses for which the school houses were 
built. These uses, so far as the purposes of the erection of school 
houses are concerned, are but secondary. 

These buildings were erected, principally for the use of the 
several school districts, for school purposes. They are not public 
halls, or churches, however appropriate, their use as such, may be, 
but school houses. And the importance in this respect, of our dis- 
trict school houses, may be partially realized, when it is known that 
it is not in the high schools, academies, colleges, or universities, but 
in the common, public, free schools, that by far the greater number 
of our people get their education, or all the schooling they ever get. 
And from these schools, as their starting point, where they discover 
their capacity, get their first training, become imbued with their 
first impulses and ambitions, have come, many, who have won im- 
perishable names, ripe scholars, great orators, able jurists, wise 
and patriotic statesmen, great philanthropists and christian leaders, 
in the pulpit, and in the missionary fields. 

The country school-house! The district school! What remem- 
brances of boyhood's and girlhood's years these words awaken! 
How many terms of winter, or summer schools, or both, did we at- 
tend? And the teachei's! do we, in looking back, remember them'? 
How we loved some of them, and how we feared others. How dif- 
ferent they were in their manners and methods. How we often 
tried their .patience. And perhaps we may remember too. the 
"sproutings," the forulings, the dunce seat punishments, the chid- 
ings we received and deserved, and we may recollect, also, the oft 
expressed kindly words of praise and encouragement. And we 
know now, whatever we thought then, that most, if not all of 
our teachers, are entitled to our gratitude and k'lndly remembrance. 

But all who have been school children, have other memories of 
their young school days — the warm friendships, the games, the 
petty quarrels, the rivalries and contests, the triumphs and defeats. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 663 

the young love matches and jealousies. And many a love match, 
made in the country school house, has proved to be a life match. 

The existence of a free government, such as ours, its growth, 
stability and success restfj in the virtue and intelligence of the iieo- 
ple. An educated people can never be long deprived of their rights, 
or enslaved. And a free State must have many men of education 
to conduct its affairs. The State, therefore, and every citizen 
thereof, has a vast interest in the education of the young, and their 
preparation for the varied duties of life and good citizenship. In 
this favored land, the free district school is the most important fac- 
tor in the education of the people. And especially is this the fact 
in this portion of our country, in which its population is made up 
of many nationalities. 

There is no power known in this land which wields so mighty 
an influence in the unification, harmonization and Americanization 
of its people, as the free district schools. Their doors are open to 
all alike, the rich and the poor, and their training, lessons and ad- 
vantages, are for all the children of one common country. But our 
free school system has some powerful enemies who, for ulterior 
purposes, are opposed to any methods of education but such as may 
be directed by them. Then there are others, wlio, because of their 
own ignorance, or immorality, or disregard of the public welfare, or 
their selfishness, or avarice, would destroy the whole system of pub- 
lic schools, maintained at public expense. Besides these, it maybe 
remembered that all despotisms, either in church or State, really 
whatever their pretenses may be, believe in keeping the masses of 
the people in ignorance. They cannot live in the light of public in- 
telligence. All these need to be watched. We must permit no soph- 
estries, or jDromises, or pi-ofessions of favor, to blind our eyes, or 
threats, or auguries of evil to deter us from maintaining, extending 
and perfecting our free school system. 

There are some things that are peculiarly and essentially 
American, the outgrowth of American conditions and American 
necessities, that must be insisted upon, and our free common school 
system, maintained at the public expense and to which every citizen 
who enjoys the liberties and protection of the State, must contribute 
his lawful proportion, whatever his original nationality, or notions 
may be, is one of them. 

And now, we should remember, while engaged in the affairs of 
life and perhaps giving but little attention to the schools ourselves, 
that he in whose hands the people have placed the greatly impor- 
tant trust and duty of the supervision of our district schools, is the 
county superintendent. 



664 HISTORY OF 

SECTION ELEVEN. 

THE COUNTY SURVEYORS. 

The duties of county surveyor are, to "execute any survey of 
lands which may be required, by order of any court, or upon appli- 
cation of any individual, or corporation " He is required to take an 
oath of ottice, and gi\'e an official bond. His term of office is two 
years. He may appoint as many deputies as he may need. He is 
required to keep a record of all surveys made by him. or his depu- 
ties, and is paid for liis services, by those who employ him, at the 
rate of four dollars per day. 

Orville Kimball was the first county surveyor of this county. 
He was either appointed by tlie countj^ board, or was elected at the 
general election, in 1850, but no record now remains of the matter. 
He left the country in the spring of 1857. He designed going to 
California, when he left here, and a number of years afterwards it 
was said by some of his relatives, residing in Massachusetts, that 
Mr. Kimball had located in Canton, China, engaged in the mercan- 
tile business, and became very wealthy. 

On the sixth of July, 1857, J. A. Kiester was appointed sur- 
veyor, by the county board, and, at the next general election of 1857, 
he was elected to the office for a full term. He was succeeded by 
S. A. Safford, of Winnebago City, who was elected in 1859. He re- 
moved from the county the next spring, when J. H. Welch, of Ver- 
ona, was, on the fourth day of June, 1860, appointed by the county 
board, to fill the vacancy, and was elected to the office, at the 
general election of that year, for a full term. Mr. Welch also re- 
moved from the county, temporarily, and the office became vacant 
in 1861. 

John Harvey Welch was born in Royalton, Niagara county, New York, March 
21, 183S. He worked at home, on the farm, and attended the common schools, 
until he was seventeen years old. He then enpa^od in school teaching, occa- 
sionally, and attended the Union School, at Lockport, New York, until twenty- 
one years of age. He canii' west in 1854, and «pent three years engaged as a 
civil engineer, on railroads, in Wisconsin. He came to this county in May, 18.17, 
and located on a pre-emption claim, in the town of \'erona. Mr. Welch was 
married March 8th, 1859, to Mi.ss Martha J. Hazeltlne, of Dodge county, Wis- 
consin. They have had tlve children, two of whom are now dead. In 1861, 
Mr. Welch was appointed, by President Lincoln, register of the United States 
land ottice, then located at Chatfleld, Minnesota. In October, of that year, the 
office was removed to Winnebago City, in this county. He then became a resi- 
di'nt of Winnebago City, where he has ever since resided. He held the ottice of 
register about six years. In I86:{, he engaged, also, In the general mercantile 
business at Winnebago City, and, In 1866, in the hardware trade, in which he 
continued until 1887, wlien he sold out. He was appointed, In 1889, postmas- 
ter of Winnebago City. In 1860, Mr. Welch was one of the board of county 
commissioners, and he has held various local offices, as chairman of the town 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 665 

board of supervisors, president of the village council, and member of the board 
of education, of Winnebago City. Mr. Welch is a republican in politics. He 
cast his first vote for Freemont, for President, in 1856. He and his family 
attend the Presbyterian church. 

On the twenty- fourth day of June, 1861, George A. Weir, of 
Winnebago City, was appointed to the ofifice by the county board and 
assumed its duties. 

George Patten, of Verona, elected in 1861, was our next sur- 
veyor, but enlisting in the military service of the United States, the 
office again became vacant. Mr. Patten did not return to this county 
again as a resident. 

W. W. Seely, of Verona, elected to the office in 1862, succeeded 
Mr. Patten. The office again became vacant. Mr. Seely removed 
from the county. Our next county surveyor was John A. Dean, of 
Jo Daviess, appointed by the county board September 1st, 1863. 

The survey, subdivision and jslatting of the timbered sections 
of the school lands in the county was performed by Mr. Dean. This 
was a large work, and some of it difficult and laborious. 

The woi"k was done in the fall of 1863, and the plats filed with 
the commissioner of the state land office, and also in the office of the 
register of deeds of the county. 

Mr. Dean is a native of New York state, born June 19th, 1825, in the county 
of Jefferson. His father, Samuel Dean, was born in England, and came to 
America and settled in Jefferson county, N. Y., when that country was yet 
quite new. He was a farmer by occupation. 

John, the subject of this brief sljetch, acquired his education mainly in the 
common schools of the country. He had also some instruction by private 
tutors. He spent his youth until he arrived at the age of twenty one years, on 
the farm of his father. He commenced teaching school at twenty and taught 
occasionally during a period of twenty-eight years. Having qualifled himself 
for the profession of civil engineer, he was engaged in the employment of the 
state ofKew Yorlc, as first assistant engineer in the construction of the Black 
River canal, from Rome to the Black river, when about twenty-three years old. 
This canal was an important work to the people of the state. The work, from 
its character, required much engineering skill and hard labor, and was satis- 
factorily performed. 

About the year 1851, Mr. Dean emigrated to the state of Wisconsin, and 
settled In Dodge county, where he engaged in school teaching, practicing law 
and surveying. 

He returned to New York and was married to Miss C. M. Yendes, in May, 
1853. They have had two children, one of whom is now dead. 

The same year, Mr. Dean returned to Wisconsin and located at Markesan, 
Green Lake county. Here he engaged in the practice of law, surveying occasion- 
ally, teaching school, and sometimes working at thecarpenter trade. 

In August, 1860, Mr. Dean and family came to this county. Here 
betook up a quarter section of land in the town of Jo Daviess, which he settled 
upon and continued to reside, engaged in farming and the nursery business, 
until his removal to Blue Earth City. 

The nursery of fruit nnd ornamental trees and shrubbery planted by him, 
was the first nursery in the county, and was attended by him with much care 
for many vears. 



6C6 HISTORY OF 

Mr. Dean entered the military service of the United States, in November, 
1864, as a private, Bointr immediately south, to Nashville, Tennessee, where he 
joined Co. B, 5th Minnesota Vet. Vol. Inft. He was in the liatties of Nash- 
ville in December, 1864, and wasalsoat the .sei>;c of Mobile, Alabama, in Ai)ril,1865, 
and continued with his regiment until discharged in September, I8G5, when he 
came home. He removed to Blue Earth City about the year 1875, where he has 
since resided, but still continues to look after his farming interests and nursery 
business. Mr. Dean is an independent republican in politics, but has never 
taken a very active part in political matters, except to keep well posted on the 
issues of the times. He has been much alllicted during a great part of his life 
with asthma and his affliction has greatly inducnced the course of his active 
life. He has, from early youth, been much of a student, his tastes inclining 
him much to mathematical and kindred studies. Mr. Dean has freijuently 
held school and town olllces, and was at one time a member of the board of 
county commissioners of this county. 

Daniel Birdsall, of Prescott, elected in November, 1863, next 
performed the duties of the office. Mr. Birdsall was elected in 1865 
for a second term. During the year following, he removed from the 
county, and the office became vacant. He was succeeded by John 
R. Sisson, of Seely, who was elected in 1866, and was re-elected in 
1868. 

Mr. Sisson is a native of Massachusetts, born in Wilbraham, May 22d, 1815. 
He received a common school education and studied surveying. In 1822 he re- 
moved with his parents to the Western Reserve, Ohio. In 1839 he was employed 
by the general government and went to Arkansas, and engaged in the survey of 
the public lands. In 1841 he removed to Louisa county, Iowa, and was married 
February 1st, 1813, to Miss Lucy G. Clark. Nine children were the fruit i)f the 
marriage. His wife died September .30th, 1881. In 185!) he removed to La 
Crosse county, Wisconsin, from thence to this county in 1863. As to occupation, 
Mr. Sesson has been engaged in farming, carpentering, and as abdve stated, in 
surveying, and latterly, somewhat in merchandising. Mr. Sisson has been a 
supervisor in his town and a justice of the peace, and was county commissioner 
in the years 1866, 1867 and 1877, 1878 and 1879. He was again married February 
<ith, 1882, to Miss Mary B. Pelton. He has for some years resided near Alton, 
Brush Creek township, in this county. His political altiliations are with the 
republican party, and he is a member of the Methodist church. Mr.Sis.son died 
at Wells, January 7th, 1896, to which village he had removed about a year pre- 
vious to his death. 

And now George A. Weir re- appears as county surveyor, having 
been elected in 1870. and held the office during the term. He was 
subsequently elected to the office in the years 1874, 1882 and 1884. 
He has also been deputy surveyor three terms, during the adminis- 
tration of other county surveyors. 

GEORGE A. WEIU. 

Mr. Weir was born in 1833, in Robertson county, Tenn. His education was 
acquired mainly in the common schools. He also attended a select school, 
where he learned the profession of surveyor and civil engineer. He came to 
Minnesota with his brothers Joseph and Daniel, in 1857, and settled near 
Winnebago City, where he has since resided. He was never married. His prin- 
cipal business through life has been that of farming. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 667 

In 1858 he brought a lot of apple trees to this county, from Blooming nur- 
sery, 111., and set them out on his lands. They were probably the flrsl fruit 
trees in the county of the kind. 

In 1866 he assisted as one of the engineering corps, in making the prelimin- 
ary survey of the line of the Southern Minnesota Railroad, from the western 
boundary of the state to Rushford, Fillmore county, Minn. The line was run 
for the purpose of locatino- the lands granted to the company. Mr. Weir is a 
democrat in politics, but of late years has taken no active part in political 
affairs. 

Edward S. Leavitt, of Wells, was elected surveyor in the years 
1872, 1876, 1878, 1880 and 1886, the intervening terms being filled by 
Mr. Weir, as will be seen above. 

EDWARD S. LEAVITT. 

Mr. Leavitt was born October 16th, 1815, at Gilford, N. H. He graduated at 
Dartmouth College in 1843, and studied law with Hon. J. P. Robinson, of the 
state of Massachusetts, and was admitted to the bar, and practiced in that 
state until 1849, when he removed to California. In 1850 he emigrated to Ore- 
gon, where he was engaged in making surveys of lands donated to settlers. The 
next year (1851) he was elected judge of Clackamas county, and, in 1853, returned 
to the east, and located in Rockford, Illinois, where he engaged in the practice 
of the law. 

He was married in April, 1855, to Miss Mary J., daughter of the Rev. James 
Fernald, of Saco, Maine. They have had one child, a daughter, who died in 
August, 1883. Mrs. Leavitt died in April, 1887. Mr. Leavitt came to Minne- 
sota in October, 1856, and was county surveyor of Winona county eight years. 
He settled in this county in October, 1870, and has here been county surveyor as 
above stated. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a republican in 
politics. 

SECTION TWELVE. 

THE SHERIFFS AND THEIR OFFICE. 

The sheriff is the chief police officer of the county, and is an 
officer with whom most of us care but little to have any official busi- 
ness. His duties are to keep and preserve the peace in his county, 
for which purpose he is empowered to call to his aid such persons 
or power of his county, as he may deem necessary. He shall also 
pursue and apprehend all felons, execute all writs, warrants and 
other process from a justice of the peace, district court,or other com- 
petent tribunal. The sheriff is also the j ailor, and in this capacity has 
charge of the county jail and its inmates. The duties of this branch, 
of his office are usually performed by an individual known in the 
common law as the "turnkey." 

The sheriff's office is one of much responsibility. Its duties are 
often not only very unpleasant, but quite often intricate and per- 
plexing, and the sheriff frequently needs the best legal advice and 
direction. His official transactions often involve large pecuniary 
liabilities, and while many other officials may neglect, or err to 



668 HISTORY OF 

some extent, in the performance of their duties with impunity, the 
sheriff is by law and practice invariably held to a strict accounta- 
bility. There are no excuses for him, and the duties of his office 
are the most thankless known to the law. 

The sheriff is required to take an oath of office, and give an 
official bond for the faithful performance of his duties. He may 
appoint such deputies as he deems necessary to assist him in his 
business. He is paid by fees which are prescribed by law. His 
term of office is two years. 

Henry P. Constans was the first sheriff of this county, and 
was appointed at the organization of the county, by Gov. W. A. 
Gorman, his commission bearing date, February 25th, 1856. He 
was subsequently appointed by the board of county commission- 
ers, April 6th, 1857. 

Mr. Constans was born in France, on the twenty-ninth day of April, 1834. 
His father held the office of forester in the department where he resided. He 
is now dead. Henry received his education in the common schools of the neigh- 
horhood. Ho had also the benellt of instruction, for some time, by private 
tutors. 

When only seventeen years old, he came to America, and landed in New 
Orleans in the year 1851. From New Orleans, he went to Quincey, Illinois, in- 
tending here to learn the harness luakers' traije, and did work at the trade some 
two months, when the cholera breaking out in the place, he migrated, in June, 
1851, to St. Paul, in this State. Here he remained until 1854, when, in company 
with Jas. B. Wakefield, he went to Shakopee,in Scottcouuty, in thisSiate, and 
concluded to locate there. Here he opened a store, being the second store in 
the village. 

By reference to the history of the year 1856, it will be seen that Mr. Con- 
stans was one of the company who projected the laying out of Blue Earth City, 
and came to the county in 1856, and was one of the original town site proprie- 
tors. Here Mr. Constans engaged in the hotel business, being the first hotel- 
keeper in the county, and he has continued in this business until the present 
time. He was married in the fall of 1856, to Miss Barbara Hebieson, of Scott 
county. They have had five children, one of whom is now dead. Besides be- 
ing the first sheriff of the county, as above stated, Mr. Constans has for several 
terms lieen a member of the board of education of Blue Earth City, and a mem- 
ber of the first village council of that place, and a member subsefiuently of that 
l)oard. He was a candidate for the State senate some years ago. Mr. Constans' 
religious connection is with the Presbyterian church. In politics he has always 
been a democrat, but never so much of a partisan as to lose his liberty of vot- 
ing for those whom he deemed the best men for oflBcial position, of whatever 
party they might be. Mr. Constans is a Mason, and a member of Blue Earth 
City Lodge, No. 57, of which be was a charter member. He is also a Royal 
Arch Mason and member of Mt. Horol) Chapter, No. 21. 

Thomas R. Foley, of Winnebago City, elected sheriff Oct. I3th, 

1857, succeeded Mr. Constans. Mr. Foley's deputies were Geo. H. 
Goodnow and Alonzo Beebe. The first tax levied in this county, 

1858, was mainly collected under Mr. Foley's administration, the 
sheriff being then, ex officio, the collector. This was the only tax 
in this county collected by the sheriff, as the duties of tax collector 




H. P. CONSTANS. 




MRS. H. P. CONSTANS. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 669 

were transferred to the county treasurer. Mr. Foley removed 
from the county before his term of ottice expired, and at the session of 
the county board held January 4th. 1859, the office of sheriff was de- 
clared vacant and George H. Goodnow, of Winnebago City, was 
appointed and qualified the next day. He appointed Alonze Beebe 
his deputy. At the general election held October 11th, 1859, Mr. 
Goodnow was elected to the office for a full term, which he served. 
He appointed Geo. S. Convers, of Blue Earth City his deputy. 

Mr. Goodnow came to this county in 1857, it is believed, and located at Win- 
nebago City. He was a machinist by occupation. He purchased the saw 
mill at that place, to which he subsequently added a grist mill, being the first 
grist mill in the county. He held various local offices, and was chairman of the 
board of town supervisors, and chairman of the board of county supervisors in 
1859 and 1860 and was sheriff as above stated. He tool? an active interest in 
the public affairs of the county, and the enterprises of this locality, for many 
years. He subsequently removed to Montana, where he has since died. 

Our next sheriff was Philander C. Seely, of Seely township. 
He was elected October 8th, 1861, and entered upon his duties Jan- 
uary, 1862. He appointed Willard Seely his deputy. 

W. J. C. Robertson, of Verona, elected in November, 1863, suc- 
ceeded Mr. Seely. He held the office one term He appointed P. 
H. Allen as his deputy. 

Biographical notices of Messrs. Seely and Robertson will be 
found elsewhere in this history. 

Following Mr. Robertson came Charles E. Chaple, of Winne- 
bago City, who was elected November, 1865, and appointed as his 
deputies, Charles A. Rose, of Blue Earth City, and Silas Richard- 
son, of Winnebago City. He was not a candidate for reelection. 

Mr. Chaple was a native of Wisconsin, born in Rock county, August 6th, 
1843. He went with his family from there to Boon county, Illinois, and from 
thence to Fayette county, Iowa, and from tlience to this county in 1856. His 
father settled on lands north of Winnebago City and engaged in farming. 
Charles' opportunities of education were such as were to be found in the frontier 
log school bouses. He engaged in farming, which was his only occupation un- 
til lie enlisted in the military service of the United States in February, 1862. 
He was at Fort Ridgley at the time of the Sioux outbreak in the fall of that 
year. He then became a member of tlie 15th Minnesota, and served in tlie south, 
and remained witli the regiment until the summer of 1864, when he re-enlisted 
in the same company and regiment, and returned liome on veteran furlough. 
He returned in August, 1864, to the front, and was at the seige of Spanish Fort, 
April 2d, 1865, and was badly wounded, losing an arm. He was discharged 
from the army, June 14th. 1865. 

He was married to Miss S. M. Vaunice, of this county, August 6th, 1864. 
They had nine children, of whom four are now dead. 

His wife died in June, 1886. He was again married January, 1887, to Miss 
Isabel S. Young, of Connecticut. 

In 1871, lie was elected sergeant at arms of the senate. He was appointed 
janitor of the state capitol in the spring of 1872. He removed to St. Paul and 
held the office of jauitor until January. 1885, when he resigned to take the po- 
sition of deputy sheriff of Ramsey county, which lie held until January 1, 1887, 



670 EI STORY OF 

when he received the appoiiiliuent of military store-keeper for the State, at St. 
Paul, and is at this writinif en^'ai^ed at that business. He has always been a 
republican, and is a member of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Chaple was sub- 
sequently elected sherilTof Ilaniscy county. 

Preeland F. Harlow, of Winnebago City, elected in November, 
1867, next assumed the duties of the ofiBce. His deputy at Blue 
Eartli City was P. C. Seely. former sheriff, who transacted most of 
the business in the south half of the county. 

Mr. Harlow is a native of Maine, born in Oxford county, in October, 1836. 
His father was a brick maker. Freeland passed most of his youth in Lewis- 
ton, Maine, lie learned the trade of '-arpenter and joiner. When about four- 
teen years old, he located at Erini,'lon, Mass., whiTe he remained some four 
years. He acquired his education in the district schools. About 1854 he re- 
turned to Maine. In 185ti he came west, and stopped at Ripon, Wisconsin, dur- 
ing the winter and spring. He left Ripon in May, 1857, and on the twenty- 
fourth of that month arrived in this county (Faribault). Here he worked at 
farm work until the winter of 1800 and 1861, when he returned again to his 
native slate. 

In 1802 he enlisted in the mililary service, and became a member of Com- 
pany C, 23d Maine Vol. Inf., and served nine luonths in the Army of the Po- 
tomac, in defense of W.ishin;?ti)n, D. C. He was discharged in 1863, and 
returned to Minnesota. Soon after his return he concluded to go into the 
sheep raising and wool growing business, and purchased a large number of 
sheep. The venture provc-d a failure, as almost all his sheep died, and he lost 
all h s investment, which was his all. He next engaged in clerking for G. K. 
Moulton, a dealer in general merchandise at Winnebago City, where he re- 
mained some three years, and then engaged, as clerk, in the United States 
Land Office, located at Winnebago City, for several years, and afterwards 
opened a general land, loan and insurance offlje on his own account, at Winne- 
bago City. 

He was married to Miss Jennie Cottrell, June loth, 18G9. They have two 
children. He subsequently engaged in the hotel business at Winnebago City, 
and also at Fairmont in Martin county, this state, and at Wells, in this county, 
and this for many years has been his principal business. In 1868 he took a trip 
to the Black Hills, of Dakota, where he remained some six months, enu'aged in 
mining and trading. Mr. Harlow has always been a republican. Mrs. Harlow 
and children are members of the Protestant Episcopal church. Mr. Harlow and 
family have resided, fir simsyeiri, at Fairmjnt, Mirtin county, Minn. 

Minnesota Lake township furnished the next sheriff, Benning 
W. Barber, who was elected November 2d, 186i). He appointed S. 
P. Child, of Blue Earth City, his counsel and deputy. B. W. Bar- 
ber was a son of Chauncey Barber, one of the earliest settlers of the 
county, and. at the time of his election, engaged in the mercantile 
business with Smith T. Barnes, at Minnesota Lake. After retiring 
from the sheriffs ottice he engaged at that place in merchandising 
on his own account. In the fall of 1874 he sold out and removed to 
the territory of Utah. 




JOHN U. CHAPEL. 




CHAS. E. CHAPEL. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 671 

HON. S. P. CHILD. 

Simeon P. Child was born November 16th, 1835, in Medina county, Ohio. 
His father was by occupation a farmer, carpenter and millwright. 

When Simeon was about three years old his father removed, with his fam- 
ily, to St. Lawrence county, New York, where they remained until about the 
year 1843, when they returned to Ohio and located in Lake county. In the fall 
of 1845 they removed to Dodge county, Wisconsin. Simeon and his brother, 
James E. Child, came to Minnesota in 1854, and located in Wa=eca county, in 
January, 1855. Waseca was then a part of Blue Earth county. 

In February, 1855, Simeon started to visit Ft. Ridgly alone, but when he 
had got as far on his way as about fifteen miles west of St. Peter, he found the 
snow so deep that he could not proceed, and started to return, and was caught 
In a fierce snow storm, and his lower limbs and feet were quite badly frozen; 
but he worried through and at last got home. His brother went to get a phy- 
sican. but owing to the deep snows and intense cold, he was gone seven days. 
During this time Mr. Child suffered intensely, and was entirely alone. As a 
result of the freezing, his toes had to be amputated. 

In the spring of 1856, he was employed on the Winnebago Indian reserva- 
tion, in Blue Earth county. Here he had charge of a large number of breaking 
teams. He remained on the reservation until the fall of 1857, when he re- 
turned to Wisconsin, and there spent the winter. 

In the, spring of 185S, he returned to Waseca county, and was married to 
Miss Clarrissa Armenia Northrup, on the eighth day of August, and com- 
menced farming for a living. In the fall he went to merchandising at Wilton, 
in Waseca county, but returned again to the farm, where he remained until the 
breaking out of the Indian massacre in 1862, when he enlisted, in the military 
service. He served here until in the following winter, when he went into the 
quartermasters department and went Siuth with the federal army. He was 
placed in charge of the Little Rock and Memphis railroad, running the road 
and keeping it in repair. 

In the spring of 1864, he returned home, his health having failed, and was 
ill for two years, and not engaged in any business. 

In 1866, he removed to Blue Earth City, where, under the firm name of 
Baldwin & Child, he engaged for a number of years in banking, real estate 
and collections, and also opened a brick yard. He was a member of the House 
from this county, in 1872 and in 1873, and State senator in 1874 and 1875. 

In the fall of 1875 he was appointed assistant postmaster to th© United 
States senate, and acted in that capacity until June, 1878. In the meantime, 
however, he was again a member of the House from this county, in the session 
of 1877. 

In 1878 he was appointed United States post-offlce Inspector, an office which 
he held until the year 1893, and in the performance of the duties of which 
otBce, he visited Kansas, ludlaa Territory, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Da- 
kota, Oregon, Montana, and in fact all the states and territories west of the 
Missouri river, and many of the southern states and old Me.xico, his special 
work being the collection of evidence in the famous star route cases. 

Mr. Child has always been a republican in politics. After retiring from 
the ofHce of inspector, he was engaged as the general agent of the American 
Surety Company of New York, and opened an office in St. Paul, to which city he 
removed his family in 1893, but still retained his property interests in this 
county, which he still deems his home. 

A. B. Davis, of Winnebago City, succeeded Mr. Barber. He was 
elected in November, 1871, and was re-elected in the years 1873 and 



072 HISTORY OF 

1875, serving six years. His deputies at various times were Q. J. 
Adams, J. W. Rosenburg, Allen Cummings and M. B. Pratt. 

>rr. Davis was born at Shiloh, New York, Dci-ciiiber 15th, 18.36, and re- 
ceived his educatiiin in the district schools. He was entfaiji'd for a number of 
years as a stage driver and mail contractor. lie cam<! to Minnestda and lo- 
cated at Allien Lea, in 1H57. lie was married in December, 18154, to Miss M. 
Adams, of All)ert Lea. They have one child, a son. During the war he was 
captain of Company E, Brackett's Batallion (cavalry), was ordered to Missouri. 
He came to Faribault county in 1868; was sheriH here as above stated. Mr. 
Davis is a democrat in political sentiment. lie was appointed postmaster at 
Winnebago City by President Cleveland. 

M. B. Pratt, of Blue Earth City, elected in November. 1877, 
next became the sheriff, holding the office one term. He appointed, as 
deputies. H. A. Chase, of Winnebago City, and Q. J. Adams, of 
Wells. 

Mr. Pratt came to this county in 1869, and was one of the members of the 
mercantile llrm of Whallon, Case & Co , at Blue Earth City. He removed to 
Owatonna, Minnesota, in 1880, where he engaged in the business of dealing in 
grain. 

Mr. Pratt's successor was Allen Cummings, of Blue Earth City, 
elected in November, 1879. Mr. Cummings was re-elected in the 
years 1881. 1883, and 1886. 

Allen Cummings was born April 21st, 1840, in Herkimer county, New York. 
He received instruction in the common schools of the neigliborhood, but his 
opportunities fiir<)btaining an education were very limited, in liis youth. Allen 
commenced to work for wages when (|uite young. After a number of removals, 
Allen's father finally located in Jefferson county, New York, where he has re- 
sided the greater portion of his life. 

On the twenty-ninth of April, 1861, Allen enlisted In Company G, 35th New 
York Volunteer Infantry, for two years, and went south. He was in the bat- 
tles of Second Bull Uun, South Mountain, Antictam, Fredericksburg, and many 
skirmishes. He was discharged, Viy expiration iif term of service, June 5th. 
186;i, when he returned home, and went to work on a farm during the summer 
of 1863. On January 1st, 1864, he re-enlisted In Coujpany M, 14lh Uegiment 
New York Heavy Artillery, for three years, or during the war. He served In 
New York harbor, until April, 1864, when the regiment was ordered to the 
front, and joined Grant's Army at Rapidan, and participated in the battles of 
the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, and first battles 
around Petersburg, ^■i^ginia. On July 30th, 1864, at the explosion of the 
mine, he was taken prisoner, and carried to Danville, Virginia, with many 
hundreds of others, where he remained until about February 18th, 1865. when 
the pri-soners were sent to Uichmoiid, Virginia, and confined in LIbby prison, 
and, on the 21st of February, 1865, they were paroleil. From thence he went to 
Annapolis, Maryland, and was permitted to go home, on furlough of thirty 
days. But, owing to ill health, the furlough was extended thirty days, during 
which time the war closed. He, however, returned to his regiment, at Wash- 
ington, D. C . and did duty with the regiment until August 25th. The regi- 
ment was finally discharged and paid, at Rochester, New York, September 6th, 
1865. On November 15th, 1865, Mr. Cummings was married to Miss Zenette 
Vand<'rvoc)rt. He engaged In farming, in .iefTerson county. New York, until 
March, 1868, when he emigrated to the we^t, and arrived at blue Earth City. 
April 18th, 1868, and lias since resided at that place. In April, 1872, he was 




S. 1". CHILD. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 673 

appointed deputy register of deeds, of this county, by F. Lent, register, which 
position he held about a year. In the spring of 1874, he was appointed, by A. 
B. Davis, sheriff, as his deputy, and this position he held some twenty months. 
He was twice city recorder of Blue Earth City. In 1876 he was engaged, by Mr. 
White, auditor, as clerk in the auditor's office, and continued as such until he 
qualified as sheriff, in .January, 1880. Mr. Cummings appointed, at various times, 
as deputies, Isaac Kamrar, C. H. Patten, and T. W. Donovan, of Winnebago 
City, and Joseph Stearnes and W. A. Billings, of Wells, and Wm. Whitfield, A. 
L. Crandall, and F. D. Yendis, of Blue Earth City. 

After retiring from all official positions Mr. Cummings removed to his 
fartu, near Blue Earth City, and engaged in farming for some years, and then 
retired again to the village above named, where he has since resided. 



SECTION THIRTEEN. 

THE CORONERS. 

The chief duty of the coroner as such, is to "hold an inquest 
upon, view of the dead body of such pei'sons found in the county, as 
are supposed to have come to their death by violence." For this 
purpose he is authorized to summon and empanel a jury. 

In cases of a "vacancy in the office of sheriff, the coroner exer- 
cises the powers and duties of said office, until a sheriff is elected 
and qualified." The coroner is also authorized "to serve and exe- 
cute process of every kind, when the sheriff is a party in the action" 
and v?hen it appears that the sheriff will not, by reason of partiality, 
prejudice, consanguinity, or intex-est, perform his duties properly. 
And "when the sheriff for any cause is committed to the jail of his 
county, the coroner shall be keeper thereof." By this it appears 
that the sheriff jails all other rogues, but only the coroner can jail 
the sheriff! The coroner is required to take an oath of office and give 
an official bond. His term of office is two years and he may appoint 
deputies. He is allowed fees for his services to be paid by the 
county, or from the parties interested in suits as the case may be. 
The business and pay of this office have never amounted to much in 
this county, and it may be observed that no great contests have ever 
been fought over the office by rival aspirants. It is a bone contain- 
ing too little meat, and as to the honors of the office, they have 
never been greatly esteemed by the ambitious. The ambitious poli- 
tician always looks for offices producing some pay, as well as 
honors. 

Capt. Jeremiah B. Gillit, of Blue Earth City, elected in October, 
1857, was the first coroner of this county. 

Mr. Gillit was d, native of Vermont, where he was born, about the year 1799. 
By occupation he was a farmer, but also learned, and worked at times at the 
trades of shoemaker, mason and plasterer. 

He married Maranda Clark, at the time a resident of New York state, and 
they were blessed with a family of six children. 



674 Bl STORY OF 

Mr. Gillit emit'rated to Upper Canada at a date not now known. lie was 
one of the insurgents in what is now known as the insurrection or great rebel- 
lion, or "patriot war," which occurred in Canada in 1837 and 1838. He soon 
after removed from Canada to the state of Illinnis, where he remained some 
years. He came to tills county, in .June, ISjfi, and locati'd on a farm near Ulue 
Earth City, wliere he spent his r.-maining years, engaged In farming, and at 
which place lie died, in July, 1^75, agi'd seventy-six years. 

William A. Way. of Blue Earth City, was elected in 1859. Mr. 
L. C. Taylor, of Dunbar, was elected in ISO I, and David Pratt, of 
Seely, in 1862, but the two last named gentlemen did not qualify as 
neither desired the oflSce. William A. Way was again elected in No- 
vembe, 1P03. and performed the duties of the office for tlie term. 
D. H. McDowell was next elected to the office November, 186.'), but 
the office again becoming vacant, Wm. A. Way was again elected 
November, 1866. 

William A. Way was born in Connecticut about the year 1831. He learned 
the trade of carpenter. He was married in 1852, to Miss Harriett C. Darke, of 
Carhondale, Pennsylvania, where he resided several years. They were blessed 
with a family of .six children. They came to this county in 1856, and located on 
a farm. Edwin M. Way, a brother of William, located with his family the next 
year. Edwin died in ]8()3. William, after farming some years, removed to Blue 
Earth City, wheie he continued to work at his trade. He held the ollicc of su- 
pervisor iif Blue Earth City township a number of years, and was also town 
clerk of the same town. He sold his farm and other property in 1868. and re- 
moved to California and from thence, after some years, to Texas, where he died 
in 1883. The family then returned to California, where they have since re- 
sided. 

Aaron J. Rose, of Blue Earth City, elected to the office in No- 
vember, 1867, was our next coroner. He was re-elected in the years 
1869, 1871 and 1873 and attended to the duties of the office during 
four terms. 

Mr. Rose was a native of the Province of Ontario, Canada, where he was 
born September 5th, 1812. He was married October 30th, 1833, to Miss Catherine 
.Smith and tliey reared a family of six children (three daughters and three sons). 
Sometime after his marriage hi: engaged in hotel keeping at Trenton, Canada. 
He left Trenton about the year 1850 and located at Port Perry, towrjship of 
Roach, and engaged as purser on board a steamboat, which ran on Lake Scugog, 
for several years. Mr. Rose was one of the sympathisers with the Patriots, in 
the Canadian rebellion in 1S36-7, and as a result his property was conflscated 
by the government, but was suliseciuently restored to him. Leaving his family 
in Canada, for the time being, Mr. Rose went to W^aterloo, Iowa, in 1856, and 
remained during the summer and autumn. In .January, 1857, he came to this 
county and engaged in the saw mill business, with his son-in-law, Capt. P. B. 
Davy. He also took a claim near Blue Earth City, which he afterwards traded 
for an interest in the saw mill. Having gotten all things ready, his family came 
on in 18.59. Mr. Rose held various town oftlces from time to time, and was jus- 
tice of the peace for many years, and coroner, as above staled . Mrs. Catherine 
Rose died in February, 1875, and Mr. Rose in October of the same year. They 
both rest In the cemetery at Blue Earth City. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 675 

Hubert P. Young, of Blue Earth City, was elected to the office 
at the election of 1875, but removed from the county in January, 
1876, and the county board at their January session of 1876, ap- 
pointed W. J. C. Robertson to fill the vacancy in the office. 

Aaron B. Balcom, of Blue Earth City, was elected to the office 
in 1876. 

Mr. Balcom is a native of Douglass, Mass., where he was bora March 16th, 
1823. He received his early education in the common schools, and at an academy 
at Uxbridge, Mass. When about eight years old his parents removed from 
Douglass to Uxbridge. Here he worljod in a cotton factory from the time he 
was ten years old to sixteen, when he went into a store to learn the mercantile 
business and book-lceeping. Here he remained two years and then returned to 
Douglass. From thence he went to Boston, Mass., and engaged at clerking in 
a store. His next move was to Millford, Mississippi, where he clerked in a 
store about two years, and then emigrated to Montgomery, Ala. .where he again 
engaged as a clerk for some time, and then returned to Massachusetts, on a 
visit. He next came west and settled at Cincinnati, O., where he bought a half 
interest in a shoe store and remained about two years, and then sold oat and 
went to St. Louis, Mo., where he remained some two years. He then returned 
again to Douglass, Mass., and bought outthe store, in which he had commenced 
clerking. Here he remained some ten (10) years, then sold out and emigrated to 
Chicago, 111., in the spring of 1856, and went to work in the railroad office of 
the Illinois Central. He remained here awhile, then went, In the fall of the 
year, to Princeton, 111., and engaged in buying, packing and shipping eggs. 
Here he bought out a stock of goods, which, in the spring of 1857, he shipped 
to Winona, Minn., where he opened a store. This stock he sold out in January, 
1858, and came to this county in February of that year, and settled on a farm 
in Verona township. In 1-859, he rented this farm and removed to La Crosse, 
Wis., where for three years he engaged in merchandising. In 1862 he returned 
to the farm, and in 1864 sold the farm and located in Blue Earth City and en- 
gaged in merchandising until 1869, and then sold out. In 1870 he located on 
a farm in Rome township and remained a short time, when he returned to 
Blue Earth City, where he has since resided. Mr. Balcom has always been a 
republican in politics since the organization of that party. He was the first 
treasurer of our agricultural society, organized in 1859. 

Our next coroner was Chas. S. Kimball, of Winnebago City, who 
was elected in the autumn of 1878. 

Mr. Kimball was born in Troy, New York, September 11th, 1822. His 
father was a soldier in the war of 1812. When Charles was about Ave years old, 
his parents emigrated to the state of Maine. He was taught in the common 
schools until he was sixteen years old, when he was sent to the Academy at 
Limerick, Maine. He finished up his school days when about nineteen years 
old. He then went to Great Falls, N. H., and worked some two years in a cot- 
ton mill and from there he went to Lowell, Mass., where he again worked in a 
cotton mill. Here he remained about twelve years, and became an overseer of 
the hands, but his health failing, he had to quit the business. 

Mr. Kimball was married at Lowell, Mass., in 1848, to Miss Mary A. Hayes, 
of N. H. They had three children. Mrs. Kimball died at Winnebago City, 
in April, 1884. 

Mr. Kimball left Lowell and returned to Maine, and remained four years, 
and then came west and located in Burns, Wisconsin. Here he remained about 
two years, and then, after a hard and long drive with an ox team, arrived at 
Winnebago City, in this county, June 15th, 1858. 



676 HISTORY OF 

Here Mr. Kimball engaged In the blacksmith business for some five years, 
iind was the pioneer blacksmith of the place. In 1862 or 1863 he opened a h(jtel 
at Winnebago City and this became his principal business for some twenty 
odd years. 

He was out of business for several years and rented his notel buildings. 
Mr. Kimball was at one time a member of the Freewill Haptist church, but 
became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, at Winnebago City. He 
has, during his life, been mucli interested in Sunday school work. When a 
young man he was a teacher for some years in the Sunday school. Mr. Kim- 
ball was in early life a democrat, but left that party in the days of Buchanan, 
and has been a republican thereafter. He held various local offices at Winneba- 
go City. He was justice of the peace quite a number of years, and police justice. 
He was also chairman of the board of town supervisors, town and city treasurer, 
and chairman of the school board, a county commissioner in 1806, and county 
coroner for a period of eight years. 

Mr. Kimball was again married December 2.5th, 1884, to Miss Sophia Jones, 
of this county. He died at Winnebago City, In 1889. 



SECTION FOURTEEN. 

A LITTLE GOSSIP ABOUT LIFE IN THE COUNTY OFFICES. 

The following remarks are made in reference to the county 
ofiBcial life of this county, as many of them would not be applica- 
ble to that of many other counties. The remarks also refer to 
those mainly who have their permanent offices at the court house. 
The business office, the place of labor of the. county officers, is the 
court house of the county. Here goes on, year after year, the pub- 
lic business of the people of the county; sometimes performed for 
years by some of the same officers, but occasionally one or more new 
hands appear. Some may have grown gray in the work, while 
others are quite young. Life here, as elsewhere, has its pleasures 
and pains, it.-? "ups and downs." It is not as some superficial peo- 
ple have thought, a life of comparative ease, of large pay and little 
work, a sort of popular ovation, with plenty of money to carry it 
through. 

For every officer who does his duty, there is steady work to 
do, and much of it requiring care and close attention. It is not 
play. No one rests "on a bed of roses" by any means, and all have 
more or less difficult and perplexing labor to perform and respon- 
sibilities to bear. 

Peace and harmony usually prevail among the officers, and 
while they do not always think alike on all subjects, of politics, 
science, morals, or religion, and while such questions as the tariff, 
candidates for office, Calvinism. Armenianism, materialism, the 
orthodox faith, monopoly, prohibition, Darwinism, etc., are often 
discussed with great earnestness, if not with far reaching ability, 
there are seldom any bitter or personal feelings manifested. No 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 677 

one has ever been known, however, to change his views, as a re- 
sult of these discussiotis, and the disputants always, so to speak, 
"come out of the same hole they went in at." The jokes and 
good stories of the season also go their rounds, and practical jokes 
upon each other occur occasionally, but ordinarily there is not 
much time for these outside matters, and especially not in business 
hours. 

The busiest seasons of the year for the officers, generally, are 
during the sessions of the district court and board of commis- 
sioners, in January and June, as many people defer their county 
business until these times. In the treasurer's office,. however, the 
great rush of the season comes in the latter part of May, when 
people come to pay their real estate taxes. It is usually a pet 
ambition with the officers to be "up" with their work to date, and 
there is, consequently, but little spare time for amusement. 

An agreeable feature of official life is that the pay is, in gen- 
eral, cash, and certain with those who get salaries, and is gener- 
ally sufficient, though not generally excessive, for the work done. 
Comfortable quarters in which the labor is done and necessary con- 
veniences to facilitate business are furnished at the public expense, 
while the incumbents are usually accommodating, courteous and 
good natured in their intercourse with each other. There is also a 
certain degree of honor and consequence in being a county officer, 
highly pleasing to some minds. And this is a reasonable pride and 
all well enough when not carried too far, for the incumbent is the 
chosen and trusted servant of his fellow citizens, in the position 
which he holds. On the other hand an officer's time is not his own. 
He cannot come and go when he pleases. He is not exactly his own 
man. He has engaged to do certain work and to do it well and faith- 
fully, and it is his duty to be on hand and attend to it, and this 
fact is usually realized. It is ti'ue that he may appoint deputies, and 
must of necessity do so, in various offices, and while the deputies 
may be more efl&cient than the principals, yet it is the officer him- 
self who, because of some supposed fitness for the place, the peo- 
ple have chosen to fill the place, and not others simply selected by 
him, and as a rule, the people like to deal with and have the personal 
attention of the officer himself. 

The performance of official duties, also, in time, became a sort 
of routine, monotonous, treadmill labor, and is confining and ex- 
acting, and possesses many perplexing features and serious respon- 
sibilities. To add to all this, officei's are sometimes charged with 
neglecting duties with which, in fact, they have legally nothing 
to do, unless their attiention is requested to them, and sometimes, 
while wholly impartial, are charged with favoritism and their motives 
impugned, without cause. Charges are also made, sometimes, that 



678 HISTOHY OF 

officers of the county are dishonest, when there is not a shadow of 
evidence of the fact. The instances, in this county, of officers 
charf^ing illegal fees, or taking advantage of their position to prac- 
tice any little, gainful frauds on the people, have been exceedingly 
rare, if they have existed at all, and would soon have been discov- 
ered. The people are very apt soon to smell out such an officer, 
and he would not succeed a great while. President Lincoln is 
credited with the remark, that "such an officer may fool all the 
people a part of the time, and a part of the people all the time, but 
he can't fool all the people all the time." 

It is a mistaken notion, also, that to hold a county office is a 
great thing in a financial point of view. As a rule the pay is no 
more, and often not so much, as would be realized for like work 
and capacity in other occupations. Then there is always the un- 
certainty of the tenure of office. If the incumbent could be sure of a 
long term in office, by frequent re-elections, the holding of a county 
office might be of more value financially considered. A discharge 
comes very suddenly and unexpectedly sometimes, and the party 
never gets a "letter of recommendation," which may help him to 
get another job. 

The fact is that most county officers have gone out of office not 
much, if any, better off financially, so far as the mere pay of the 
office was concerned, than they were when they went in, and this is 
true even of some who received the largest pay, and held office for 
long periods. 

The man who has a permanent, fairly paying, legitimate business, 
whatever it is, can rarely afford to abandon it for a county office, 
always of uncertain tenure, for if he is soon relegated to private life 
again, he must commence business anew. And this matter of anx- 
iety as to re-election, recurring every two or more years, together 
with the expense and labor incident thereto, must be deemed one 
also of the disagreeable features of county official life. 

The question is sometimes asked why, if there, is not a good 
deal in these county offices, do the incumbents usually desire a re- 
election? They are always candidates for re-election, and "won't let 
go until choked off." Well, it may be answered, that in addition to 
the more agreeable features of holding office above set forth, there 
is this important reason: As a rule those who accept a county 
office abandon all other business, because the office usually takes 
their time and attention, perhaps requires a removal to the county 
seat, if the person elected resided elsewhere, and when the end of 
the term comes,unless re-elected, which generally seems a fair pros- 
pect, they find themselves out of business, and must enter upon 
business life again, perhaps under many disadvantages — but here is 
work they understand, and can do, and hence a re-election seems 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 679 

the best thing, under the circumstances, and is generally sought, 
term after term, until, for some reason, the people squelch out 
these fond aspirations. Officers who are voted out, invariably think 
the peojjle have made a great mistake, and that there has been 
some treachery somewhere. 

We, however, have never had an officer who went into and out 
of office, as a certain jolly Irishman said he did. 

He had come to America, and after some years' residence here 
returned on a visit to the old country, and boasted a good deal of 
his exploits in America. "Well, 'Moike," inquired an old friend, 
"did ye iver git into office over thare?" "Indade I did, Dennis," said 
Moike, "and was mighty poplar too, I wint into a high office by 
the unanimous consint of the paple, and begorry, I wint out wid 
that same." 

There is a fact which may be noted here, as an incident to 
official life not generally known. The county officers holding a 
somewhat prominent and public position, and having an acquaint- 
ance with almost every one, and it may be added, being depend- 
ent on the good will of the people for their positions, and thus 
deemed under special obligations, are called upon constantly for con- 
tributions to almost innumerable things, not only local but through- 
out the county, as the support of the ministry, the building x)f 
churches, public enterprises of all kinds, even the making up of the 
loss of a team, or stock or other property of some unfortunate per- 
son; special cases of poverty, in fact charities of all kinds, and the 
whole finished up with the importunities of book agents, picture 
sellers and venders of various nostrums, as eye-water, catarrh snuff 
anti-billious pills, and such useful articles as stove-polish, silver 
wash, etc., make quite an aggregate, and although these things are 
all right in themselves, and many of them should be and are liber- 
ally contributed to, or purchased, yet this may be named as absorbing 
quite a percentage of the salaries every year. But we have said 
this is one of the incidents of official position, and the officer who 
ddfes not like this or any other feature of office, may resort to that 
great and inestimable privilege, provided by law and sanctioned by 
the people, for all suffering public officers — he may resign. We may 
add to these rambling remarks several further incidents of life in 
the county offices. It is understood among the officers that when 
temporary assistance or information is needed by any one in the 
transaction of the business of his office, it is the duty of some of the 
others to render the assistance, or advise about the matter, and this 
is always done freel.y as a matter of common courtesy. New officers 
are entitled to all the assistance and instruction they may need as to 
the performance of the duties of their offices, until they get familiar 
with, and can perform them themselves. 



680 HISrOHY OF 

People visiting the offices on business, or in quest of informa- 
tion, are always treated cordially and courteously, whether they be 
rich or poor, and of whatever nationality, and every effort is made 
to attend to their business promptly and correctly. The sentiment 
has always prevailed in the offices, that when an officer forgets that 
he is the servant of the ])eople, and grows surly and unaccommo- 
dating, he is in eminent danger of what the boys call "the grand 
bounce." Should officers in America exhibit the insolence and the 
exacting and self important ways of officers of like grade in some 
foreign countries, they would receive from the people, "notice to 
quit," in a very short time, and properly so. 

About election times, which by the way are times when among 
the officers there is more or less conjecturing and uneasiness, the 
cry of "court house ring," "county clique" is heard, which means 
that the county officers are banded together to keep each other in 
office, or all pull together for the election of some favorite. To 
this it may be answered with truth, that such a thing as "court house 
ring" for the purpose above specitied, or for any other purpose has 
never existed in this county. The officers very frequently talk over 
the elections and with more interest, perhaps, than some other peo- 
ple, and usually differ considerably in their views. Every officer, has, 
as a rule, "to scull his own boat," and the writer has never known 
during the period covered by this history, of a combination among 
them, as that suggested above. 

This history of the offices may now be closed by the record of 
facts, most creditable to the officers comerned, that during the 
period of this history, during which many officers have come and 
gone, the county has been served with fair ability and great faith- 
fulness. The work has, in the main been well done, and bids fair to 
stand all tests of time and inspection. No one has ever been guilty 
of mis-feasure, or malfeasance in office — there have been no great 
mistakes prejudicing people's rights or interests. There have been 
no embezzlements, no defalcations in office, and all this is largely 
attested in the fact of the frequent reduction of its officers, or in 
other words, the long terms of service accorded many of them, rang- 
ing from six to eighteen and one of twenty years. No other county 
in the State can boast of so many officers who have held its offices 
for so many years. Ma^"^ the second quarter of a century of our 
official history show as good and as honorable a record. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 681 



SECTION FIFTEEN. 

CONCLUSION. 

We have now reached the conclusion of the first volume of our 
history, embracing the first twenty-five years — the settlement epoch 
— of our county. 

Nothing need be said here, of how well or how imperfectly the 
work of writing the history has been done. The record must speak 
for itself. The effort has been to writer, at least, an impartial and 
truthful history. In looking back over the history of our county, 
and while remembering some things we could wish had not happened, 
yet we feel much pride and great satisfaction, because of the much 
good work done, the great progress made and the high standing of 
our county, all along, fi'om the beginning and at the close of the quarter 
century. The early settlers found a wilderness and at the close of the 
first twenty-five years we behold a great community of intelligent, 
prosperous people, animated by a spirit of progress and improve- 
ment, cheerful and confident, and enjoying all the blessings of the 
highest christian civilization. And this was a good deal to accom- 
plish in so short a time. But many of tlie earlier settlers and others 
of the first quarter century have already gone to their long homes. 
They have gone forever beyond our sight, or comiDauionship on 
earth, but may we not utter the wish, expressed in the beautiful 
words — "May the eternal light shine on them, O, Lord forever, for 
thou art merciful. Grant them O. Lord, eternal rest." Others of 
that period, are now nearing their journey's end, and are now tread- 
ing down that last declivity of life, which opens into the valley and 
shadow of death. 

When the next quarter century closes, but few of those who 
were of adult age, whose names are recorded in our census rolls of 
1860, in the several towns, will remain on earth. A few, perhaps, 
may still be here, like belated wayfarers, the friends of their youth 
departed, the labors of life and its ambitions over, waiting from day 
to day the final summons to join the great multitude who have 
passed to another state of existence. And many of the old and 
honored friends, (would that we could have named more of them), 
who shared the toils and hardships, the joys and sorrows, the ad- 
ventures and successes of many years of pioneer life, it is not too 
much to say, there may remain no record but this history that they 
ever lived and labored here. And it is the decree of a higher power 
which men cannot change, that like all the generations that pre- 
ceded us, so shall we all pass away, and one generation succeed 
another, until our names and our deeds, the records we have written, 



682 HISTORY OF 

even the memory of the mighty age in which we have lived— the 
grandest of all the ages — shall grow dim in the remembrance of 
men, and at last, perhaps, be wholly lost in the night of oblivion. 
So be it. 

To the unknown people who shall come after us, and who in 
their great advancement in the methods of civil government, the 
sciences, arts, literature, inventions, discoveries, the mastery of the 
powers of nature, and, we may add, perhaps, in virtuous and happy 
living, may look back upon us as a rude, ignorant, semi-barbarous 
people, we bid a genial, kindly welcome to this fair land. Our day 
and work are done. Many great things are doubtless in reserve for 
them. The great industrial, social and other problems which now 
engage the public mind, and which now .seem almost impossible of 
solution, may all by them be wisely settled. Human labor may be 
still further lightened by machinery, of which we have now no con- 
ception. They will, perhaps, 'ere a quarter of a century more ex- 
pires, travel over land and sea in aerial palace cars. The now hid- 
den regions of the north and the south poles may be known and oft 
visited lands. The vast underworld of the oceans, three times 
greater in extent than all the dry land, the living beings in which 
far exceed in numbers those of the land — the great water world of 
which we know very little except of its surface, may yet, by the 
people of the future, be navigated, explored in sub- marine ships, 
which shall safely traverse the great valleys and plains and mountain 
sides, of the great deep, and note the vegetable and forest growths, 
bring to light the mineral wealth, and study and classify and picture 
the living creatures of the deep seas, many of them doubtless of 
such strange forms, of beauty or horror, and of such vast propor- 
tions as to be inconceivable to us. Jules Verne's travels under the 
seas may not always be a fantastic dream. It may be a prophecy. 

Agriculture may at sometime in the future be aided in the 
cultivation of all vegetable life, by the application of electricity, 
and crops never fail. That same mighty, but still mysterious, 
power, may propel all machinery and furnish all necessary light 
and heat, and abolish the use of coal and wood, as fuel; or perhaps, 
heat for all purposes, may be drawn from the deep bowels of 
the earth, and be distributed upon its surface, where needed. The 
same powerful agent — electricity — may help to locate and may be- 
come the principal agent, in the curing, of diseases. The applica- 
tion of mesmerism, hypnotism, yet but little understood, and psy- 
cological knowledge may abolish the use of drugs, conquer pain, 
and cure many ailments as well as work other astonishing wonders. 
Human health may be greatly perserved, and the longevity of the 
race be vastly increased by agencies of which we now know nothing. 



FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 683 

The chemists of the future may furnish delicious and nutrative food 
in such condensed form, that one may carry a sufficient quantity 
for a weeli, a month, or a year, in his pocliet. And because of ap- 
plicances so destructive, which may hereafter be invented, that 
great multitudes of men and vast amounts of property may be in- 
stantly destroyed, wars shall no more occur among men, and per- 
haps all nations be simply parts of one world-wide confederation, 
and a supreme tribunal of the world may hear and determine all 
international difficulties. But beyond all else, perhaps to those of 
the future of great and cultivated intellectual power, and who lead 
pure lives and have unquestioned faith in Him, who can do all 
things, the veil, now impenetrable to us, that divides the physical 
and spiritual worlds, may for them, be made thinner, transparent, 
or may possibly, not by pretense, delusion, or jugglery, but in fact, 
be drawn aside, and they may be able to see and to tell, even in this 
life, the great mysteries of the life to come, or may be granted a 
wider, deeper, more certain knowledge and understanding of all 
things about them, so longed for by the thoughtful student of nature, 
and of man's mental and spiritual capacities. 

To a few, in the ages long past, such visions and such knowl- 
edge, were granted by Him who dwelleth in eternal light, and it is 
written, that in the last times, men shall be as gods, in knowledge. 
But for us, stiU groping in darkness, surrounded by mysteries, 
limited on all sides, while we strive and hope, progressing slowly, 
we must wait, wait in silence and awe for the fullness of knowl- 
edge, which may then be granted, until 

"The gates of death are past.'' 

But to those who come after us, we say, do not forget that it 
was in our day the greatest battles were fought for the preserva- 
tion of civil and religious liberty and self-government, which bless- 
ings come down to us from our fathers, and it will be for those 
of the future to perpetuate and glorify the great heritage. They 
should not forget that we leave much of human knowledge and 
experience and great appliances and our fair and fertile fields, 
our young cities and busy marts of trade, our works of industry 
and our great inventions and the cause of education well advanced, 
and all our other acquirements for their benefit, and which may be 
what shall render possible that which they may achieve. . They 
will have more means to work with than we had, and it is indeed 
a goodly inheritance for them. 

In conclusion, we may all unite in the grand invocation, "That 
all things may be so ordered and settled * * * upon 
the best and surest foundations" "for the safety, honor and 



684 HISTORY. 

welfare of the people." and "'that peace and happiness, truth 
and justice, i-eligion and piety may be established among us for all 
generations." 

"And now, dear friends, farewell for many a day, 

If "ere we meet again, I c;innot say, 

TogethiT have we traveled o'er long years, 

And mingled sometimes smiles and sometimes tears; 

Now droops my weary hand and swells my heart, 

I fear, good friends, we may forever part: 
Forgive my many faults, and say of me, 
lie hath meant well, that writ this 'history'." 

THE END. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



This index does not purport to be full or complete, but refers only to a few 
of the names and events embraced in the volume. 



Abbott, S.J 265, 422, 445, 471, 472, 658 

Aokerman, A 561 

Ackerman, D. J 548, 561 

Acldey, J.C 51 

Agricultural Society. Organization 102 

Agricultural Society, subsequent history, 
See each year. 

Alvey, John 51b 

Anderson. Anthony 478.653 

Andrews, R 372, 559 

Assessors. The First 81 

Assessments. The First 92 

Auditors. The County 99, 646 

Austin, Horace 196, 630 

Autumn, The 411 

Balcom, A. B 434, 675 

Bar of Faribault County 336. 471 

Barber, C 503 

Barber, B. W 289, 670 

Barber Township 544 

Barnes, S.T 506, 507 

Base Ball 247 

Bee-Keepers' Association 489 

Bible Society 87 

Billings, Levi, Sr 43, 51 

Blair, Thos 114, 153, 198, 365, 384, 515 

Blackmer, Frank 133 

Blue Earth City, (village) 45, 55, 68, 577 

Blue Eartli City Township 5T3 

Bonwell, A 

99. 109, 110, 123, 148, 162, 198, 320, 647 

Bonuses, The First 270 

Botsford, Isaac 133, 146 

Bounties to Soldiers 101. 169, 178 

Bowen. T 61 

Branson, Lewis 100, 630 

Brown, L. Vf 299, 4:j8, 583 

Brown, F. P 355, 393, 434, 161, 656 

Brown, O. D 518 

Brooks, A 61 

Brush Creek Township 665 

BuUis. A. H 396. 468, 519 

Burt, G. O 59 

Burk, J. 1' 556 

Burmester, J. H 561,562 

Buswell, G. W 270, 396, 414, 438, 471 

Cady, F. W 198, 239, 648 

Catlin, D 303 



Census, see years 1857, 1860, 1865, 1870, 1875, 
1879 

Chapel, John B 527,669 

Chapel, C. E 215, 527, 669 

Chesley , Philip 69, 610 

Chicken Shooting . 137 

Christie, J. L 149, ,525 

Cliild, Jas. E 385 

Child, 8. P.. 332, 355, 362. 372, 377, 396, 434, 438, 671 

Circus. ThB First 258 

CivilWar, The 125 

Olaggett. J 269 

Clark Township 552 

Cleveland, G. K 90, 96, 110, 123. 326, 635 

Comets 94, 141, 153 

Commissioners, The County 48, 643 

See each year. 

Conclusion 681 

Conrad, J. E 58,584 

Conrad, Henry and George L 623 

Constans, H. P 5, 45, 48, 55, 69, 578, 688 

Converse, G. S 217, 581, 669 

Conventions. Political, The First 79 

See each year. 

Cook, John 570 

Court Commissioners 637, 643 

County Seat 47, 60, 108, 143, 145, 322, 397 

County Attorneys 639 

County, The— 
Location and Physical Characteristics, 

etc 19 

Boundaries and Name 34 

First Settler 37 

Organiz.ation 47 

Oeaeers, The First 48 

Government 626, 643 

County Surveyors 664 

Courts, District, First Term 100 

See also each year. 

Court, Clerks 632 

Court House, The First 358 

Coroners. The 673 

Crosby, E 41, 80, 81 

Ouramlngs, A 478, 672 

Dancing 90 

Davy, P. B 246, 281, 481 

Davis, A. B 332, 372, 409, 671 

Dean, J, A 134, 355, 593, 665 

Dearborn, O. H 365, 384, 422, 583 



686 



INDEX. 



De LaVergno. A, F 250, 366 

Drittviin Tnwnslilp 513 

DfUivuii. VIlliiRo 802.318 

Depot. The First 2«0 

nickiDBoii. ».A :m. 6:11 

Dow, Simon SS. <1" 

Dunn, Anil rew C 

5. 58. 68, 67, 82, 177, 422, 471, 840 

Dunbar. W.F 499 

Dunbar Township 498 

Dunbar. C. S 335, 409, 414, 4.')B. StH 

Dunham. W.N 80,82,83 

Dunham, .1. H 123. 145, 167 

Dustlo, \Vm 145, 177, 651 

Easton, Village 363,385.311 

Ea.-^ton,J.C 512 

Eclipse . .. 284 

Election, The Plret 60 

Election Keturns. See each year. 

Elmore Township 604 

E'.more, A.E 606 

Emerald Township 569 

Fairs, Annual, The First 110 

See each year. 

Faribault. .1 . B 3.') 

Faribault. Alex 36 

Faribault County. See County. 

Festivals. Soldiers 189 

Financial Crisis. See 1857 and 1873. 

Fisher. F. (Homicide) 51 

Fishing 138,39a 

Floods, see 1858 and 1867. 

Foley, T. R 80, 81 

Foster Township 560 

Foster, K. U., Dr 5-18, 562 

Game, In Early Days 41. IX> 

Garretson, 55 

Glint. .T.B 80, 81. 073 

Gllman, H. H 434.438,448,453,530 

Ooodnow, G. H 100, 102, 109, 110, 669 

Goodrich, D. F 

305, 423, 445. 448, 453, 471, 472, 578, 055 

Gray, B 540 

Grangers 249, 368 

Graham, S.W 405. 422. 456. 471, .581 

Grassliopperlnvaslon,365, 386, 391, 405,431. 441 

Green, M. W 400, 448 

Grout,!-. I' 68. 09 

Harvests, see each year. 

Harlow, F. F 250, 670 

Healy, O. 510 

nibler,S. V 45. 48, 61, OiM 

Holley, H. W 133, 158, 435, 453, 473. 518 

Holland, A 633, 554 

Holidays- 
New Years Day 164 

St. Valentine's Day 182 

Waslilngton's Birthday 229 

St. Patrick's Day 325 

Good Friday 344 

Easter 347 

May Day 363 

Norwegian IndepeudeDce 380 



Memorial Day 400 

Fourth Day of ,Tuly 423 

Hallow Eve ^^% 

Thanksgiving 4(Q 

Christmas 484 

Holmes, Tbos 38 

Homestead E.xemptlon 271 

Home. The 275 

Homestead Taxation 232,253 

Homicides 51, 61, 171, 311, 3:0 

Hunting 135 

Ilunllugton. Carr 587 

Huntington. U.M 332. 537 

Huntley Village 476,535 

Hulchlns, E. H 332, 362. 393, 307 

Hyatt. N. B 145, 610 

Indians 30. 77 

Indian Outbreaks 70, 77. 152, 168 

Jackson, J. M 80, 81, 632 

.lail.The First 298 

.Tohnson. A 60, 80, 81, 110, 114,650 

.TolinsoM. U. U..2l.n, 2.'>0. 289, 332. 372, 461, 409, 652 

Jo Daviess Township 593 

Judges District Court 630 

Judges Probate Court 834 

July Fourth, First Celebrations 90 

Jurors. First to Serve 101 

J uslioe of the Peace, The First 48 

Kaupp.0 448, 652 

Kiestor. J. A 81, 90, 96, 202, 289. 622 

Klester Township 621 

Kimball, C. 8 401, 675 

Kingsley, Geo. B 5, 47, 48, 49, 54, 

80. 81. 82. 83, 123, 385. 472, 473, 481. 581. 632 

Knapp. W. W 635, 639 

Kremer, N. J 503, .W» 

Kremer, Peter 504 

Land Office 132, 279 

Latimer, J. A 96, 177, 269, 289. 529 

Lawsuit, The First 73 

Leavitt, E. S 355. 434, 461, 667 

Legislation, See Summary each year. 

Lent. Frank 239, 268, 305. 655 

LoBuour, M 9, 575, 576 

Lincoln, A 205 

Lura Township 509 

Mall, The First U. S 54 

MoCormlck.John 510 

McArtbur. Geo. D 96. 162, 473, 609 

MeCrery, J. L 85. 98, 99. 394 

McClure.G 598 

Metropolitan, The First Hotel 55 

Minnesota, see Introduction. 

Minnesota Lake Township 502 

Minnesota Lake. Village of B06 

Minute Men .150, 160, 196 

More. A. li.. Sr 

269, 291, 335. 398. 409, 414, 459, 469, 602 

Moore. Geo. D 416 

Mound-Builders 28 



INDEX. 



687 



Neal, H. J ..268, 269, 305, 355, 434, 633 

Nelson, O., (Houga) 512 

Newspapers )V1 

Blue Earth City News, The First, 1861.. 133 
Southwest Minnesotian (Blue Earth 

City), 1962 149 

Whig of -76 (Winnebago Oity), 1863 171 

Blue Earth City Advocate, 1864 185 

Free Homestead (Winnebago City), 1864 185 
Minnesota Southwest (Blue Earth City), 

1866 232 

Blue Earth City Post, 1869 28U 

Prairie Bugle (Wells), 1869 286 

Wells Atlas, 1870 293 

Winnebago Oity Press, 1870 297 

Wells Real Estate Advertiser, 1870. .... 311 

Blue Earth City Mail, 1871 330 

Winnebago City Advertiser, 1872 343 

Delavan Bee, 1872 350 

Faribault County Leader (Wells), 1874.. 391 

Church Messenger (Wells), 1874 379 

The Bee (Blue Earth City), 1874 393 

Vedette (Blue Earth City), 1875 397 

Wells Gazette, 1875 411 

Wells Advocate, 1877 440 

The Sun (Winnebago City), 1879 470 

Winnebago Oity Times, 1879 483 

Nichols, A. R 41, 526 

Pteffer.S 321,335,416. 468,578 

Pierce, P. M 393, 396, 530 

Pilot Grove Township 597 

Pond. T. G 372,377,546 

Population, see 1857, 1860, 1865, 1870, 1875, 
1879. 

Postmaster, The First 54 

Potter, W. W 375 

Powell, J. W 58, 366, 536, 537, 584 

Powers. A 553, 554 

Pratt, James 633 

Pratt, Jno. K 198, 633 

Pratt, David 617 

• Pratt, M. B 395, 448, 672 

Prairie Fires 369, 479 

Prescott Township 539 

Preston, Amos.... 123, 162, 177, 215, 393,397, 636 

Prior, Jas 565 

Probate Court and Judges 634 

Quotas— Credits 182, 212 

Railroad. The First Bonuses 270 

Railroad, Tlie First in the County 292 

Railroad, Gran J Opening (1879) 482 

Register ot Deeds 653 

Religious Services, The First 56 

Reynolds, B. G 433,472 

Richards, R, W 335,434,461,660 

Robertson. W. J. C 85, 177, 635 

Roberts, Henry 41, 526 

Konie Township 612 

Rose, A.J 250, 289, 372, 674 

Rose. C. A 377, 438 

Roster, Grand of Soldiers 217 



Sailor, Moses 5, 37, 48, 60, 65, 80, 81 

School Lauds 199 

School Superintendents 657 

Scott, W. M 42. 60, 65, 438 

Settlers, Tlie First, see Township His- 
tories. 

Severance, M. J 631 

Seely, P. C 145,617 

Seely Township 616 

Sheriffs. The 667 

Shirli.J.E 616 

Shillocl<, D. G 162, 198 

Shultis, Allen 69, 81, 110. 409, 609 

Sisson, J. R 239, 268, 434. 666. 

Slocum, C.H 379, 406, 445, 456, 459, 536 

Society, Old Settlers 479 

Spencer Spier 45, 47 

Sprout, J. H 250, 289, 332. 372, 472. 578, 641 

Spring, The 115 

Squires, F. A 376 

Summer, The 328 

Statistics, see years 1860, 1865, 1870, 1875, 1879 

Stoddard, H.T 5, 42, 48, 81 

Sunday 315 

Sunday School Association 294 

Supervisors, The Town 496 

Taylor. A. L 500 

Temperance Society, The First 120 

Temperance Union, W. C, 474 

Temple, Franl< W., 376, 393, 397, 414, 437, 541, ,583 

Thompson, 0, W 300, 322, 453, 553, 556 

Trapping 135 

Treasurers, The County 649 

Voting 308 

Verona Township 532 



384. 630 



Waite.P. W 

Wakelield James B 

5, 4.5, 48, 60, 65, 80, 81, 82, 123, 162, 215, 239, 
268, 279, 406, 414, 438, 448, 453, 469, 472, 

Walker. H. R 42, 53, 223. 392, 

Walnut Lake Township 

Way, W. A 110, 177, 239, 

Weddings, The First 

Weir.G. A 305. 393, 

Weir, J. L 96, 

Welch, J. H 114,123, 

Wells, Village 

West, J. P 372,377,385, 

393, 396, 409, 414, 438, 448, 453, 461, 469. 

Whallon, G. W 305, 322, 

White, W. W...268, 305, 355, 393, 434, 461, 550, 

Wilson, C.W 42, 60, 65, 80, 81, 92. 

Wilkinson. M. S.. 268, 445, 456, 472, 478, 559, 

Williams, W. W 280. 

Winnebago Indians 

Winnebago Oity 58, 67, 

Winnebago Oity Township 

Winter, The 

Woesner, Andrew 

Wroolis, T. S 461, 

Young, E.C 

Young, H, P 



578 
481 
547 
674 
81 
666 
640 
664 
555 

472 
332 
618 
604 
642 
379 
523 
523 
,522 
466 
545 
469 

51 

409 



( 



